Fire Emblem Awakening : The Hunter
by Amildyne
Summary: A man wakes up in a world that he has no memory of, completely different from his own reality, he must cope and adapt to a world wrought with war. Watch him grow and create friendships and bonds along the way. Rated T for Violence
1. Chapter 1 - Beginnings

**Author`s Note:** Well this is my first fan fiction, and I thought I`d give it a try, the idea came from my own head and the character of Arthur is based on me, since I thought it`d be fun to be able to mess around in the Fire Emblem universe as if I was there, anyway I hope you enjoy and review, tell me how I did what I did good or bad.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Beginnings**

It all started with a strange email asking me if I was "interested in a grand adventure?"

My initial thoughts on that were simply "this is a strange way of trying to scam someone," so I decided to reply back with a sure, who wouldn't want to go on an adventure and forget about some boring routine. That would be the last time I would sleep in my bed with all the memories that came with it.

* * *

That's strange I don't remember renovating my room to remove my roof altogether, I like my houses to have something that keeps the rain out. Getting up, a realization struck me nearly causing my heart to stop, I was outside. That's not what did it of course, because I have had those nights were I spent the night sleep walking and wake up somewhere other than my bed, course never as far as leaving my house. The kicker was I don't remember living in the middle of nowhere. I was on a grassy meadow that seemed to stretch for miles and miles. Looking around, there was a bag and a note stuck to it that drew my eye. It appears someone left me a message; well on the bright side at least it might answer some questions. Gingerly, grasping the note I slowly unfolded and began to read what it contained.

Dear Arthur

If your reading this, then congratulations, I tried my best and was able to grant you access to a World of excitement and danger, you told me you wanted nothing more than to go on a journey of exploration and where waking up each day brought more danger, where your life could end at any moment. I hope this world suits your tastes and look forward to seeing what you are capable of

Yours Naga

Heart racing, palms cold, I was torn between deciding this was all an elaborate illusion my sleep addled brain cooked up to make me come to terms with my insanity, or that this was real and I might never sleep in my warm comfy bed ever again. Course it didn't take long for my excitement to overpower my rational thinking. This was incredible, I don't even know who this Naga is, but Oh gods I don't want to waste this chance. Rummaging through the bag I noticed it contained a sword of steel or perhaps iron, a weird book, a wooden staff, food and water, as well as some strange gold coins. It was in a small bag, and numbered at about 500 coins. With all that sorted out, I did the first thing that came to mind, set off for the nearest plot of civilization, so I could at least get my bearings and move on from there.

"Welcome traveler and what can I do for you?" said the inn keeper.

"I was hoping for a room for the night and a hot meal if that isn't too much to ask for? "I replied.

"Oh that's no trouble at all, that will be 3 gold, and tonight's dinner is chicken stew and bread," he answered.

Flexing my shoulders and body, my thoughts wandered to all the different things that had happened in the past few years I had spent in Ylisse. I went through a lot since first getting to this world wondering around the world seeing what there was to do, doing odd jobs for random people, getting training in the art of spell craft, swordsmanship, and healing, even saving a village or two from brigands. I even got myself a nickname up in the north, after a rather morbid raid on a bandit camp, and cleaning it out, returning to the village with applause at the good news, they went ahead and dubbed me "The Hunter," honestly, being given a title was quite a satisfying experience. Clearing his throat to get me out of my thoughts, he placed the food in front of me.

"Here's your stew," he moving towards the front room of the inn, I gingerly took hold of the platter and went to find a place to enjoy my dinner. Taking measure of the room, of the several tables scattered around the room, I moved to sit in the only table that was available, except for one person. He was dressed in strange regal looking clothes that were colored blue, and wore a mask that seemed ornate and well made. There was strange silence that seemed to settle over the inn as I sat down. The murmurs started after, I caught a few of the things being muttered.

"Think they're bandits?"

"They're carrying quite a number of weapons!"

"That guy in the mask gives me the creeps"

"Think they're going to start anything?"

Trying dissuade their fears, I put on my friendliest face and spoke in the calmest voice I could manage and told them, "Okay people, I know were carrying around weapons, but look past that, because it has been a long day of travel and I want to enjoy my dinner in peace, and besides the last thing I'd do is hurt random people."

With a resounding sigh and a couple muttered apologies, I went back to my stew and bread now that the crowd's fear was taken care of. Did not take long before my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to strike up a conversation with my dinning partner.

"So where are you headed, must be a pretty interesting place since your carrying all that gear on you."

"I'm headed to Ferox on important business."

Well that was rather cryptic, although his voice sounds rather strange for a man, I'd even dare to say that sounded like a women, however that would explain the mask though. Well no point in being concerned about the trivial stuff I still have to introduce myself.

"Well since well be traveling together, my name's Arthur," I said with my most charming smile. There was a palpable silence that passed by before he responded.

"My apologies, but I don't recall you mentioning anything about traveling together."

"Since where going to the same place I thought I'd tag along, it's safer traveling in pairs then alone is it not," I answered.

With a knitting of his brow he grumbly said "you're going to tag along even if I tell you no won't you?"

"Well I've always wanted a mysterious masked traveling companion it'd make things more fun wouldn't you say?" With a sigh of resignation, he told me that I could travel together with him, as long as I didn't get in his way

"Now that the traveling business is out of the way, my name's Arthur in case you forgot," bringing the topic back to introductions.

"Arthur, the hunter I presume?" he inquired with a trace of curiosity creeping into his overall uninterested voice.

With a puff of pride I answered "oh, you've heard of me have you?"

"It was difficult not to when half the town gossip is about a white haired man hunting brigands alone, and seeing as how you're the only armed white haired man in this inn Arthur, it wasn't too hard to speculate."

"So the hair gave me away, a sad but daily occurrence, I can't remember the last time a brigand came at me with no idea who I am, it used to be so much easier when they thought I was nothing, but an armed farmhand," I responded with exasperation."Now that you know who I am, I still haven't caught yours oh masked one," I said in a joking manner.

"If you must call me by something, you may call me Marth," he responded."After the hero king, interesting, so tell me about you since we are going to be traveling together, I like to get to know my traveling companions," I stated.

"Well, if you must know, I am heading to Ferox on very important business, and can't really tell a total stranger, even one with a reputation like yours Arthur about it," he said in a flat tone leaving no room for further discussion.

Unfazed I continued, "well you don't have to tell me about your personal business, just stuff like how you like your bear cooked, or what animal you prefer to have for dinner when I go hunting,"

"You don't wish to question me on the mask, simply what I am like as we travel together." He said with surprise.

With a good natured laugh I told him, "as far as I'm concerned the mask looks cool and fits the mysterious stranger on a quest to save the world vibe I'm getting from you, so why question it."

"For such a strange man Arthur, your very well mannered, I look forward to traveling with you to Ferox," he said with some levity in his tone.

"I'm hurt Marth, surely I can't be that strange," I said in mock shock.

"You travel the land hunting bandits and doing odd jobs, without a sense of fear or danger seems rather strange to me," He pointed out.

"Now that is just because I can never resist the smell of adventure, of the reward after a good quest, of the triumphant return to smiling people," I declared with pride.

"Very strange indeed, but I like you, there's nothing better than the will to help one's who are less fortunate than oneself, and a thirst for adventure and excitement is understandable," he responded in good nature.

As our conversation dragged on, we finished our dinner and decided to head out in the morning at the crack of dawn. After a hot shower, I put on a new pair of clothes, and stored my gear in the closet, leaving my sword in reach for emergencies. Laying there in the inn's bed I realized, that the message Basilio sent me asking for my assistance in a matter of his was rather strange. He is usually very direct with me when asking for my expertise. There was however one incident in which he persuaded me to help him deliver some letters to a noble, he was being very sly that time, which caused me to have suspicions about his motives. It was answered promptly when I was attacked by thugs asking for the letter. In which case, Basilio being strange is probably going to get me hurt down the road, but I can't let an old friend down. Reminiscing on old habits and memories, sleep tugged at the edge of my vision until only darkness remained.

* * *

While the sun began to rise, I rose from my bed and slowly made my way to the sink to begin my morning routine. After I was all cleaned and ready to set out, I moved to Marth's room and knocked on the door. As seconds became minutes, I decided to wake him up the old fashioned, unlocking his door I slowly crept through the crack as to not wake him up and prepared the tools. With a bucket of water at the ready, I moved to his bed in which I took noticed of a few things. First, there was a woman's undergarment strewn on the floor, second, Marth looked pretty feminine sleeping, and thirdly, he never takes off his mask. Putting those details out of my mind, I threw the bucket of water onto Marth yelling into the room, "Rise and shine Marth, we got a long day ahead best we get moving!"

* * *

"Okay I know you're upset, but I'm sorry it was just a joke that went too far alright," I apologized.

"I am not upset Arthur, your antics weren't the least bit upsetting, it wasn't the wakeup call that's got me upset."

"Oh I get it, you didn't want me to find out you were such a womanizer you rascal you, but that's okay I got you bro, your secrets are safe with me," pantomiming a zipper being zipped across my from relief or surprise, Marth responded, "yes, do try to keep it a secret I wouldn't want others to realize someone with the name of the hero king be known as the womanizer." We kept moving afterwards, Marth giving off a sigh of relief as we traveled.

With the remaining sunlight dwindling to let the inky darkness creep in, our legs sore from traveling, we set up camp for the night inside a cave. As my name implied, I went out to hunt. Racing through the woods in search of prey, drawn to the sounds of snapping twigs, and the breathing of any animals, I came across something interesting.

In the distance a dozen meters away, a number of brigands were surrounding a girl, she looked to be of rather high nobility judging by the way she dressed and the rather pompous, if I do say so myself, horse beside her. With some rather rough yelling and insults being thrown, I decided it would be only kind, to aid a damsel in distress. Notching an arrow into my bow and moving close enough to fire, I snuck up to the three of them and prepared to do what my title symbolizes.

Releasing the arrow, it flew through the air reaching its intended target with a satisfying crunch as it tore through skin and bone. As the body fell, I rushed taking my sword out of its sheath in preparation for taking on the remaining two brigands. As they watched their comrade fall to the ground in a lifeless heap, they decided the lady wasn't worth the effort and ran off packing yelling about being prepared for the chief to hear about what happened here.

"Well that was close, are you alright?"

"Quite alright, I'm glad you came when you did I don't fancy having to partake in such barbaric activities as fighting, I'm more of a lady as you can plainly tell."

"Well I'm glad to be of service to such a fine lady as yourself, me and friend are camped just in that cave their if you'd like spend the night in some decent company."

"That is much too kind and I shall graciously accept your offer. "

"The campsite is in that cave over there, I'll head there after I've acquired some dinner, I hope you're okay with fresh quarry," I said with a toothy grin. She surprised me when she nodded back stating that Quail was her favourite. I didn't think someone calling herself a lady would even find the idea of freshly killed meat delightful, even making demands no doubt. Heading back to the forest after making sure she was heading in the right direction, I continued my search for some food.

Steadily searching through the forest, I luckily came across a pair of deer resting at a small pond sipping from the pools of tranquil water. How nice, it seemed my luck was in spades today being able to come off as a gentleman in one day. Taking out my bow and arrow, I began to creep closer to the pair of animals. As I got within a few meters of them, I was knocked to the ground, one moment I was staring at the two deer that would have been our dinner, the next I was looking down at the ground. In a frantic search I as my heart accelerated, I noticed that I was stuck in a rope trap likely meant for any wildlife that happened to step into it. With a quick slice of my blade, I fell to the ground in a graceless heap, earning myself a bruise for the trouble. With the sound coming from my fall the deer finally took notice of me and began their attempts to escape.

Breath by breath, slowing my heartbeat, I once again took hold of my bow and arrow, carefully notched one iron tipped arrow, and prepared to fire. With a degree of concentration I visualized the arrow flying forth to strike at my prey, and with that my breath stopped and my focus reached a sharpness only found in the thick of battle. With a resounding crack, the arrow was let loose flying towards its prey; it looped through trees and seemed to come alive. The next moment I was returning to the makeshift camp with the hunt's spoils. What I saw was quite interesting indeed, somehow by some sorcery, the damsel in distress managed to get Marth out of his usual attitude of companionable silence.

"Good evening friends, and may I have the privilege to present to you tonight's dinner, a succulent deer, your favourite milady, freshly killed and gutted." I declared with a proud grin plastered on my face. Surely, this would be able to get myself into our new traveling companion's good books.

"Welcome back, I see you got more than just deer on your hunt," said Marth, glancing at the noblewoman.

"What can I say; I just couldn't resist a chance to rescue a damsel in distress."

"Well at least you didn't get yourself killed trying to do dangerous things again hmm"

"Oh Mar Mar, just look at me I could never get myself killed, there's just too many things to do and experience," I said in a joking manner.

All of a sudden, the said damsel interrupted, "my apologies if I'm intruding, but seeing as I still do not know your name, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself, so that I can thank my savior properly?"

"Ha-ha, oh yes, I am Arthur, sometimes known as the hunter in some parts at your service," I replied with a nod of the head and a proffered hand to shake.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Arthur, You may call me Maribelle," shaking my proffered hand with a firm grip.

"Well seeing as how we have a nice fire going, may as well cook this deer I so painstakingly caught."

"I can see you even caught what I told you was my favourite, how kind of you to look after a random stranger's tastes."

"Yes, I spent a lot of time of time searching for deer, I could have caught anything else, but I did it just for you Maribelle." This prompted Marth to laugh out loud, which was quite a nice sound to hear, seeing as how I hadn't heard him laugh even once, and I can usually get people to at least laugh once in an entire day, I'd say it's one of my best traits.

"Excuse me, I just found Arthur, whom I've known to act on a whim, would go out of his way to hunt only deer for a lady an incredibly humorous situation."

"Oh come now Marth, you know me, I'd do anything to make the lives of random strangers easier," I replied with a laugh.

"Well then, if by luck or deliberate action, at the moment we are dining on deer, and so I have Arthur to thank for that."

"Ah don't mention it Maribelle, I'm only happy to make a friend's life easier. Well now that the origins of the meats out of the way, where were you headed before you were ambushed by those brigands?" I asked taking a chunk out of the meat.

"Oh, I was headed towards Ylisse to reacquaint myself with the nobility and see my dear old friends."

"Oh, so your part of the nobility I take it and you know that group of theirs that the royal family is a part of with a name about tending sheep?"

"You mean the shepherds Arthur," chimed in Marth."Yes, that group, anyway you must be quite connected to them huh Maribelle."

"Why yes, in fact I've had the privilege to grow up alongside them and see the younger sister as my very own." She said that with quite a bit of pride I noted, best steer clear about that topic unless I want my ears swamped.

"Anyway, me and Mar Mar here, are headed to Ferox on separate business."

"Well this will be the only night we spend together then won't it."

"Fret not my lady, I am sure the red string of fate has wound itself between our two souls and we shall meet again in the future," I said in the most heroic voice I could manage. Of course this only brought out another laugh from Marth. I think I'm getting the hang of getting him to laugh, I think it's all about the acting out of character, since he must see me as a total badass. Exhaustion taking hold, we began to prepare for sleep as we finished up our conversation and dinner of deer. With some final mutterings of merry dreams, we three allowed our lids to fall for the coming day's journey.

* * *

"Travel safely you two, and if you ever have the chance come visit me, come say hello."

And with that our time with Maribelle was over as we continued on to Ferox. Back to companionable silence, the thoughts of last night came flooding back and I decided to question the masked individual known as Marth about it.

"You know when, I first came back to camp I noticed you were pretty lively with Maribelle before I got there. So what did you like about her you womanizer you, was it her noble accent, her refined way of speaking, or simply her rather strange hairstyle?" I asked, as the curiosity demanded I know.

"Arthur, you know you've got it completely wrong, just because it just happened to be a lady didn't mean that I was trying to seduce her."

"Alright Mar Mar, if it wasn't that then why were you so content to speak with her?" I asked even more curious. I assumed Marth had no time for pleasantries and manners seeing as how he wears that mask and all.

"It was simply because she reminded me of someone I use to know rather fondly, she was like family to me and seeing her brought back happy memories."

"Oh, then I must apologies Marth, I've got you completely wrong, I thought you were someone completely different than what I'm seeing now for that I apologize," I sincerely said.

"It's okay Arthur, I know you didn't actually mean anything by it and it's not like I've been completely honest you, I'm still wearing my mask even, I'm glad you understand.

"Well what are friends for, but to understand each other's pain and carry some of that burden," I said in a joking tone happy to be there for others.

"Alright shall we get moving Mar Mar?"

"Of course, we've still got a ways to go Arthur, and thank you coming with me no matter what; it has helped me deal with some of my personal problems."

"Glad to be of service, and I'm happy you let me tag along without any protests," I shot back with a toothy grin.

As we neared the last town before Ferox, I asked around for the nearest inn and we head off in that direction. Passing by the buildings, I noticed that some were boarded up and abandoned; there was gutter in some parts of the road, and the faint stench of violence that seemed to infest my noise. Some of the villagers seemed near hopeless, wearing nothing but rags and their faces were downtrodden as if life dealt them a bad hand. I made my heart ache seeing so many signs of unhappiness. There were even signs of brigand attacks here and there, made evident by the frantic looking footsteps in the mud and the broken crates and barrels likely caused by the rampaging scum who dared attack innocents.

"What's wrong Arthur," my traveling companion asked with concern, "you look pale."

"It's just this town; it dampens my mood whenever I see people living their lives in misery."

Arriving at the inn, we got ourselves a room for the night and dinner, glad to be able to sleep in a bed again, eating our dinner I asked the innkeeper what happened to the town, it seemed more depressing then it should have been.

"Aye friend, there's not much we can do there, you see being so isolated from Ylisee and Ferox having no spare troops, we couldn't defend ourselves against the brigands. They first came two weeks ago, and ever since they would come every couple days or so, they've taken woman and children to be sold as slaves and ransacked homes taking anything of value. Most of the villagers have left, but the remaining one's cannot because they're family has been taken and they hope to reason with the crazed animals in an attempt to buy them back. As far as I'm concerned their gone and for your sake I'd suggest you get out of town before they come."

"What do you mean, when's the last time they came?""Seeing how it's been a couple days since their last visit and the town being in the shape as it is, they'll probably arrive tonight to gut the last remaining parts of this town for all its worth."

Anger, that's all I could see, anger at my weakness, anger at the brigands taking advantage of poor, weak innocents, and anger that I wasn't here to put a stop to this earlier.

"I know what you're thinking Arthur; you want to take the brigands on and try to rescue the captives don't you?"

"Who wouldn't Marth, they've taken innocents, ruined families, and destroyed homes. I'm going to make the ones who gave me the title of 'The Hunter' a new story to tell."

"Alright fine, since there's no way of persuading you out of this, I'm going to help, because I can handle myself as well as you can and I know these brigands deserve no mercy."

"Glad to have you with me Marth, this should be a piece of cake with you and me together, we'll be unstoppable."

* * *

With the Darkness creeping in, the sounds of savages approaching the quaint little town could be heard, in their stupor, they expected the two villagers standing in the square as if waiting for them were offering themselves to be captured. With dark glee, the chief brought out the chains and cuffs he so fondly used to imprison villagers. As he moved his head up back to the strangers, what he saw woke him up from his stupor.

With a flurry of blades and skill, the two slashed and cut their way through the dozen brigands that he had, they weaved, parried, and countered with skill that far exceeded their own. The one in the mask was a slicing maelstrom, each strike was quick and flawless, and his footwork made each skirmish seem like a deadly dance. One moment he was cutting the arm to disarm his opponent the next, he was striking at the neck to kill, no movement was wasted, and no brigand was spared. The other one was a demon, he fought as if consumed by a rage that seemed to be fueled by the village's misery itself, each strike from his blade left hands numb, each slice cut through tendon, permanently maiming the flesh, his eyes watched the battle unfold and calculated each step, when a brigand began to run in fear for his life, he would seamlessly notch an arrow and fire with pinpoint accuracy, piercing through the brigands neck. It was quite evident these were not the weak and poor villagers the brigands were expecting and in a moment only the chief was left. As the two waded through the corpses of his fellow brigands, he lost control of his bowels.

"You have a minute to tell me where you keep the prisoner's and give me the key." The man with the bow stated, with shaking hands he began to fumble through his trousers and found the key. Shakily, he handed the key to him, and tried to think of a way out of this situation without dying, deciding that they needed his information he concluded he had the advantage.

"I'll tell you where I kept them if you allow me to leave."

"Very well, I will allow you to leave the village unharmed."

Satisfied with his answer, he told them of the location and was moved to leave the village, but as he reached the outskirts of the village, he could hear the whistling of something from behind him. Turning around, the last thing he saw was a feathered arrow heading straight for his head. The only thought running through his mind was this end was inevitable and embraced it.

"You know, you can really handle a sword Mar Mar, remind me not to get on your bad side."

"You're not too bad yourself, and I can see why they call you 'The Hunter,' you really do care don't you?"

"Enough about that, we have some people to save and a bed is calling my name at the end of all this."

Traveling to the location he specified, we found a numerous number of cages set up which hosed the missing villagers. For the most part, they weren't in too bad condition and some of them were even lively enough to want to fight. It appears they were about to be sold to some kingdom over the sea before we got here in time. When we returned to the village, we were met by the town's citizens and their cheers. Apparently the innkeeper decided to spread word about what we did and notified the whole town after we weren't killed by the group of brigands. Telling them the reward of seeing the happy faces of families being reunited was enough for me and that they should focus on recovering the village back to its former glory. Going back to the inn, and jumping into the bed, I fell asleep instantly.

Well now I know how Marth felt when I did it to him, it was pretty unpleasant, and to the sound of his laughter I slowly propped myself up. Getting a clean pair of clothes since my last ones was wet, I moved to the washroom to do my morning routine. After drying myself off and putting on travel clothes, I went downstairs to eat breakfast before setting off with Marth. I was greeted to the sight of eggs and bacon, with a side of toast, my face must have looked pretty weird there since my ears were rewarded with the sound of Marth's laughter once again.

"Ha-ha very funny, just so you know, my next prank is going to be even more outrageous then the bucket of water in the morning wake up call, so be prepared Mar Mar be prepared indeed." I said with as much of a threat when can make, with bags under his eyes.

"I look forward to it Arthur, I only hope you'll be able to take my comeback." Digging into my favourite type of breakfast, I devoured it quite quickly and we set off for the remaining trek to Ferox.

Walking to through the town, we finally ended up near the palace. In which I was surprised, since I thought Marth would have gone somewhere else. As we continued to travel to our objectives we both ended up in front of Basilio. Finally here after the long journey I let out a long sigh and was excited to finally get some answers to that vague letter.

"Arthur, my friend, so good to see you, about that business in regards to the letter, I've been meaning to ask you for a favor, and of course you'll accept right my friend?"

"Alright ol'Bassy let's not get ahead of ourselves tell me what you need first before you tell me to charge headlong into a brigand den again, the last time was not a very enjoyable experience. "

"First let me deal with your friend here, so what brings you to me masked one?"

"I've come to seek your permission to allow me to fight in your name in the coming battle."

"Well then isn't that a surprise, but can you fight masked one?"

"I can testify to his skill Basilio, he as good mastery over the blade in fact, hes probably better than even me."

"I musts say that is quite a feat in itself, as you probably know Arthur here is quite adept at combat, or else he would have perished long ago."

"Indeed, I've been fortunate enough to have him as a traveling companion, and have witnessed his expertise in person."

"Well since your both here, follow me to my chambers."

We began to follow after Basilio, I wasn't sure where he was leading us till we came to a filled with soldiers of varying backgrounds and skills. The room was large enough to house over a dozen troops, there were weapon stands strewn along the walls, and sets of armor inside crates. The barren concrete gave the room a chilling atmosphere, as little light shown in through the window. Gesturing towards the desk leaning in the back center the room he brought out two forms.

"About that favor Arthur, I'd like for you to fight in my name in the coming tournament, what do you see old pal, would you help a friend out?"

"You know, I knew something was fishy when I got that letter, but fine, as long as there's no killing this time I'll do it."

"Terrific, I'll leave you two to get prepared while I fill out your registration."

Out of the array of weapons and armor present, I decided to relinquish my battle worn iron sword for a new steel one, and replaced my bow with steel of the same make. Going through the last bits of equipment, I looked up to see Marth hadn't taken any of the weapons. Curiosity drove me to question how come.

"So Mar Mar, how come you're not getting a new sword, its free you know?"

"That's because my blade doesn't get worn down Arthur."

"Wait, you mean to tell me it doesn't break?" Well that's pretty sweet I must say, the only other way you can keep a weapon for a long period of time was to use it well and strike without wearing the metal, this took skill however.

"Well seeing as how were both going to be fighting in the tournament, how come you want to?"

"It will allow me to take measure of this land's future."

"Well alright then, but I plan on winning because I hate to lose."

All of a sudden there was a resounding bell, which was probably the signal to enter the arena seeing as how most of the fighters in the room were rushing out of the storage. As we followed the on rushing troops, we walked past a large set of wooden doors that stretched meters above my head, they were quite grand and made for an intimidating appearance, as if this battle would change everything. Preparing for combat we got into position, I was near Marth in the back of the troops. Glancing to the other side of the arena, I took notice of who our opponents were going to be. There was a regal looking man with blue hair covered in rather similar armor as Marth, and wielded a sword identical to his. A small blonde woman didn't trail far behind him, wearing a dress that seemed ill appropriate for combat to boot, she carried a stave, and noting that she was a healer, made her a priority target. Following her was a woman with strange robes, blue hair, and carrying a book that looked quite heavy. After her there was a large armored man, with brown hair, and an alert gaze, he must also be taking measure of his opponents as his eyes drifted to Marth with surprise I noted. I decided to ask him about it, but the horn signaling the start of battle soon sounded.

* * *

Watching the other fighters charge ahead, I took measure of the skills our opponents put into practice, I noticed the strange robed woman could handle herself quite well with a blade and even used magic no less. The large man was a brutal fighter, decimating all who got in his way, no fighter could land a single hit against such a large target. The blond haired woman sat idly in the back waiting for an ally to be injured so she could heal, and Marth was fighting the blue haired man, wait what. Out of nowhere, Marth had rushed out into the middle of combat and was in a locked duel with his opposite. They looked incredibly similar, if he didn't have his mask on. They made the fight seem like a dance, and I watched entranced by their movement. Until with a flip they backed off and made room for the other fighters to get in.

Surveying the chaos I saw that the healer, was left unguarded, and moved to strike. Rushing forward, I flew past the other fighters preoccupied with the robed woman, large man, and royalty. With a final lunge I aimed to strike, as my blade sailed through the air, the blue haired man rushed in to parry it. Well this was going to be harder than it seemed. Taking a quick peek behind me I noticed there were only five fighters on our side left, including me and Marth. This realization told me I had to end this quick or else fight on the losing side. Turning back to the blue haired man, I prepared to fight, focusing my mind and relaxing my muscles. We both rushed at each other in a flurry of blades, I would slash and strike at his arms and legs, he would parry and counter each attack. He would look for weak points in my style of fighting, I would take measure of his defenses. It was a tactical battle, each person trying to find a way to outduel the other. As the fight dragged on, my limbs began to leaden and the bruise from the night before became evident. It caused my fatigue to take its toll, and with a resounding ring, my blade was knocked from my hand.

"Do you yield," he asked, with his blade pointed at my neck.

"Never!" I yelled, taking out my dagger and throwing it buying myself time to retreat and equip my bow. Retreating back to where Marth was I noticed there was only him and me left.

"Situation looks pretty dire Mar Mar, doesn't look like we can win, I've only got my bow left and a few measly arrows."

"That's alright Arthur, I didn't come here to win anyway, just to evaluate."

"Well whatever reason it is, I'm going to go out swinging," I declared with some bravado.

Soon they were upon us, the group of four, after dispatching the last fighter on our side. As I took aim with my bow, I watched as Marth engaged two of them on alone. I was left with the two women. Firing an arrow at the healer, she managed to duck out of the way and the robed one sent a fireball my way. Rolling to dodge, I notched another arrow into the bow as I prepared to fire I was met with the blunt end of the wooden stave, and before I blacked out the last thing I thought was "damn that girl can hit."

I regained consciousness sometime after the battle ended, I was propped up next to the wall and a note was stuck to my chest. Taking it off and flipping it around I noticed it was from Marth. Must have been real important for him to send a letter I thought sarcastically. Beginning to read, it slowly dampened my mood.

Dear Arthur

If your reading this then, I'm probably gone now, I did my mission and well probably become merely a spectator now. It was fun traveling with you, but at the same time painful as it reminded me of what is to be. I must fulfill the last part of my mission on my own. Maybe we will see each other again one day, and you can tell about the tales of Arthur the hunter

Yours Marth

With watery eyes I went with the crowd and found Basilio in the middle of a rant about how great a fight that was until his eyes brightened at the sight of his friend, Arthur.

"And this is Arthur, some of you may have heard stories about someone named 'The Hunter' well this is him."

"Hey, not the best way to meet new people, fight first, talk after huh," I said with a laugh and a proffered hand.

"Well met Arthur, My name is Chrom, this is my sister Lissa," as he directed my gaze to the blond haired woman. I bowed as any gentlemen would do.

"This is Robin, my tactician"

"How do you do Arthur, we've heard some of your tales, I must say they made you out to be quite vicious."

"Well, sometimes people like to exaggerate the details to make them more interesting; I can assure you I'm only vicious when I need to be." I said with a grin.

"And finally, this is Fredrick the wary, trusted friend, and capable soldier."

"Well met Fredrick, remind me not to get you angry, watching you mow through our side was quite a sight indeed." With a simple nod, and nothing more, I turned my attention back to Basilio.

"So when were you going to tell me I was going to fight against royalty hmm?"

"Ha-ha, truth be told, I didn't know about who Flavia picked until now."

"Well, it was a good match and I'm glad I got to meet the leader of the respected Shepherds." I offered a handshake between men. With a firm grip, we shook and I was surprised when the bruise that shouldn't have been there didn't ache. The look of bewilderment prompted Lissa to tell me that she healed me after knocking me unconscious, which left me sighing in relief.

Well with introductions out of the way, and a few comments on how true the stories of my title were, Basilio brought in someone I've never seen before, a man named Lon'qu, and with that the little group finished whatever they were done with set off to rest for the night in the town inn. Tired as well from everything that has happened I set off for the same inn.

* * *

Arriving just as the sun set, I went to the innkeeper to pay for a room for the night and some dinner. Man they really like stew in these inn's I can't remember the last time I ate anything other than stew for dinner. Surveying the room, I noticed a group of familiar people sitting near me. Deciding to get to know them better, I moved to sit with them.

"Hey there again, hope I'm not being rude sitting here with you guys."

"Good evening Arthur, I hope you aren't feeling too bad losing to me."

"Ha-ha no worries about that Chrom, one duels not going to get me down, besides I'm sure the next time we meet things will be different," I said with a challenge in my tone.

"Good to hear you're doing well Arthur; it was quite a sight, being able to fight with Chrom for as long as you did even with your injuries."

"Thanks, but I'm glad I was able to give your brother a run for his money. So what brought you four to the tournament couldn't have been simply just to fight in the name of Flavia?" Robin was the one to answer that question with a proposal.

"We're here to fight in the name of Flavia all part of deal we made that would ensure she would send troops to aid Ylisse in the coming days ahead. In that regard, Basilio told us of your actions and how you've spent your days traveling the land, helping the common folk, and clearing brigand camps. Seeing as how your actions are none too different from what we the shepherds do, I would like to ask if you'd like to join our group."

"Oh, well why not; I guess I wouldn't mind adding my skills to your party, sign me up captain." With my acceptance, Robin nodded her head as if expecting my answer and we spent the remaining time enjoying our dinner before heading off to bed. The next morning we sent off back to Ylisse, I was put in the back beside Lissa, which fortunately was pretty interesting to say the least.


	2. Chapter 2 - Bonds

**Author`s Note: **Whabam, Chapter two's done, consisting of more action and terrible jokes than one can count, we got Arthur deciding to be reckless again, and friendships being born, as well as Robin learning a thing or two about Arthur, anyway hope you enjoy

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening

* * *

Chapter 2 – Bonds

So a few days have passed since we left Ferox and have been on the road to Ylisse for quite some time, aside from a mishap with bear meat and Fredrick almost starving himself to death, there weren't any real problems. I did learn one thing from that incident though, whatever you do never force feed Frederick anything 'gamey' as he liked to say, as that's a mess no one wants to clean up not to mention we have to lug the big guy around.

When we finally got to a town I yelled out in happiness, it earned me quite a few weird looks, but I couldn't think of a better way to express my excitement. After days on the road and sleeping on nothing but hard rock from caves or the ground a real bed was like a dream come true. Course we didn't head to the inn first, Robin wanted to find the local town hall and see if there were any tasks that needed the help of the Shepherds. When we finally got to the building, the first thing I noticed was it looked quite new with wood that barely looked worn and the fence surrounding it sort of gave off the impression that it was high class. Entering the building I took note of the fine decorated walls, of the ornate looking chairs, and the strange large rooms. Locating someone sitting behind a desk, Robin asked,

"Excuse me, but would you happen to be the mayor of this town?"

"That would be me miss, what can I do for you?"

"Our party was curious about the surrounding area and was wondering if there was any Brigand problems that you needed help with."

"Ah, well there have been reports of brigand sightings near a village north of here, we would send some town guards, but that would leave our town unprotected. If you wish to be of aid I would appreciate you finding out if that village is still intact as we haven't heard back from them and it's been a couple days."

With that knowledge in our minds, Robin decided that it would be a good idea to head over there as it was only a half days march; with more than a few groans and comments about her being a cruel taskmistress, I resigned myself to fate. I must say marching through the woods, even after it started to snow was not fun, it being freshly fallen caught our shoes and boots, making the already grueling task of a continued march even more horrendous. The pain even made me forget about why we were headed up here. By the time we got to the village in question the last thing I wanted was a fight.

Finally we got out of the trees and into the clearing, and the scene that was before our party was quite chaotic. There were people running about trying to get away from the brigands chasing them through the snow. In the distance was a village surrounded by a number of them, being defended by a red haired woman. A small number of the brigands were waiting in ambush to take the runners no doubt. While my mind took in the environment, Robin yelled out our plan.

"Alright I know you're all tired, but we have to save those people, I want Chrom and Fredrick to lead the charge taking out the ones chasing after the villagers, Arthur you're going to assist the lone defender in warding off those attackers, and Lissa I want you with me. Let's go, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get some food and bed."

* * *

With a chorus of approval we each moved to do our job, rushing forward I ran through the snow towards the group of attackers. Taking out my bow I counted at least five brigands closing in on her. With the element of surprise on my side, I notched an arrow aiming for the the in the back hoping to take him out without the others noticing. Firing, the projectile sailed through the air striking the brigand's heart, as he collapsed however he let out a gurgled cry. Alerting the others to my presence, I prepared to fire another before having to switch to my sword. Two of them came rushing at me, and with nothing in the clearing for them to take cover behind I easily took one of them out, the arrow piercing his neck.

Unsheathing my blade I got into a ready position to parry any oncoming blows. The brigand came swinging, aiming to slash at my head, I moved to evade. Deflecting his next strike, I rotated his blade a full circle, disarming him lest he risk his hand breaking. After his blade clattered on the floor, I immediately swung my blade through his neck decapitating him cleanly. With the two brigands taken care of I moved to assist in taking on the last two.

Rushing back to the red haired woman, I passed by the corpse of a dead brigand, and as I got near enough to assist, she finished with her fight. Cleaning her blade with the body her attacker, she gave a warm smile before introducing herself.

"Nice of you to show up when you did stranger, I'm Anna the merchant at your service."

"Well I couldn't just miss out on the opportunity to play the hero now can I? My name's Arthur resident hunter of evil wherever it may be."

"Hmm, well maybe I can find a discount on my wares for someone so heroic."

"That can come later, since we still have a couple of brigands to clean up," as I directed her gaze towards the number of brigands still waiting in ambush. With a silent nod in understanding, we went the long way around, sneaking up on them to increase our chances of succeeding. Turns out it wasn't too difficult, what with their focus being on the main road and the villagers that should have passed by. Taking out by daggers, I tossed one to Anna, indicating we do this as quietly as possible. Nearing the first two of the five laying in ambush, we prepared to strike. With a quick plunge of the dagger into their hearts and a hand to muffle their screams, we moved on to the next one. That is until I stepped on a twig, and with a resounding crack, their heads turned as one taking in the sight of an armed assassin with the dead bodies of their comrades behind him.

"Kill him", they yelled in unison, as the three brigands moved to kill me, I noted that they hadn't noticed Anna who was just about to take one of them out. Before they could react, Anna jumped from the bushes she was hiding in getting a clean cut on one of the brigands, taking him out of the fight. With only two brigands left, I unsheathed my blade, itching for a good fight. I always preferred a straight on fight, but don't mind doing anything it takes to win especially if I was outnumbered. With Anna by my side, we made short work of the remaining two and I gestured to Anna to follow. Heading back to where the Shepherds should have been I decided to make some idle conversation.

"Good job, you sure can handle yourself for being a merchant."

"Well, a girls got to learn to defend herself sooner or later, besides as a merchant you end up meeting some pretty unsavory types every once in a while."

"Ha-ha, you must run a pretty cutthroat business, since you have to lug all that gear around not to mention you can't get that many customer's interesting in buying weapons and the like."

"Oh I don't only sell weapons Hun, I've got all sorts of other goodies that I sell to, in fact I just got a shipment of skin cream if you're interested, though it's usually for women."

"Yep, I think I'll pass on that, anyway they should be here any minute," with that declaration it wasn't long before I could see Robin and them heading from the direction of the village. As they got closer, I noticed they were carrying a few items that weren't there before. Curious, I pointed it out.

"Oh, these are just the gift the villagers we rescued decided we had to have as thank you for helping them."

"That would explain it, anyway, I'd like to introduce you all to Anna, and she's a merchant who can fight pretty well so don't make her angry." I directed their gaze towards her with an excessive amount of hand gestures, as if I was showing them a rare animal.

"Hey there, Arthur's friends, you wouldn't happen to be interesting in buying any supplies would you? I damaged my cart when those brigands attacked even trying to raid a sweet little merchant like me."

"I have a better offer in mind, how would you like to supply our army Anna, you can keep up a steady income and if you're interested in traveling we see quite a bit of the world in our marches."

"Hmm, travel with the king's men, where people will have to turn to me to purchase new equipment, while I can line my pockets with your gold, and don't have to spend days looking for a customer. You make a very appealing offer, very well I accept."

"Glad to hear it, were headed back to the inn now. I suppose you'll need Arthur to help you move your cart?"

"That would be great."

"What why me Fredrick's our strongest man if you need help moving a cart you should pick him." As I whined about Robin being cruel and unfair, I did not miss that sly little smile she gave off as I turned my attention to Anna.

"Oh come now I it's not that heavy so don't be a baby about it." Grabbing my arm, I was dragged away to the sound of a few giggles and snickers. Robin would definitely rue this day I told myself, mentally moving Robin to the top of my list of people to prank. For the most part moving the cart wasn't too bad; Anna never stopped looking at me the entire way though. I wasn't sure how long we were traveling by the time we got to the inn, but I was sure of one thing, I couldn't feel my legs let alone have the energy to get the cart the last few feet. Thankfully I saw a shining angel descend upon me in the shape of Fredrick. "Here let me get that for you Arthur, you could use a good night's sleep hmm."

"Trust me Fredrick with everything that happened today I think I could use several nights' worth of sleep. I swear I've never had to travel so far in one day, have a fight, and be forced to pull a cart back to the inn, I'm just glad the wheels were still intact."

"Well I've taken the liberty of washing your clothes for you and it'll be on top of your bed, so have a good night's rest."

"Thanks Fredrick." Wait a minute, when did I give him my clothes?

Waking up early to make sure I had time to plan out my revenge, I made my way over to Robin's room. Glancing around making sure I was being sufficiently sneaky, I saw Robin still asleep, her room was filled with piles of books, but there was only one I was interested in. Finding what I was looking for, I slowly made my way out of her room, being sure not to disturb her sleep. Making my way to the market place, I looked for a certain shop through all the different wares being sold. Finally finding what I was looking for I told the clerk to wrap it tightly. With that out of the way I moved back to the inn and climbed the nearby wall to get close enough to the roof to tie the wrapped object's bindings around an arrow that I used to keep the book in place. From the ground it looked like rather strange, but it was too high up for most people to care about the oddity. All that was left was to enjoy her reaction.

* * *

Waking up from last night's adventures I rubbed my eyes and got myself ready to plan out how the rest of today would go and the route we would take to get back to Ylisse. Meeting up with Chrom we talked about what would happen now.

"How are you feeling Robin up to the task of planning out our route?"

"Always Chrom, I don't want to let anyone of our friends down, surely planning a travel route out won't tax me too bad."

"Well alright then, on to other matters then, we should aim to return to Emmeryn with the news from Ferox and introduce Arthur and Anna to the rest of the Shepherds."

"That sounds like a valid course of action, there is however one stop that peeks my interest," pointing to the map laid across the table, I indicated a village near the one we were stopped at. "I believe we could take this road as we travel back as it allows us to check on this village, we don't want a repeat of what happened here."

"That sounds like a good course of action, you really do care about others don't you Robin."Of course, we shouldn't let bandits or risen ruin the lives of innocent people." I declared with some bravado.

"Well since that's settled let's get breakfast, I'm sure the rest of them are already digging in, I heard you couldn't miss the face Arthur makes while eating eggs."

Well that sounded interesting, I should probably take a note of it in my book, now then which robe pocket did I leave it in. That's strange I seem to be missing a book, but I couldn't have misplaced it, it holds everything I need to keep track of our unit and plans. This better not have been one of Lissa's pranks again, honestly that girls got quite a talent for making my life interesting that's for sure. Heading down to the food, where the aroma of freshly cooked eggs, bacon, and toasted bread caused my mouth to water just a bit, I took a look around me. Lissa, Anna, and Arthur were sitting on one table, with Arthur making a rather humorous face while munching on his breakfast, Lissa and Anna were laughing making jokes about how much he loved toasted bread, and Chrom, and Fredrick were off to the side having one of their moments. Grabbing some breakfast of my own I moved to sit together with Lissa.

"Wow Arthur, I swear if I could take a picture of your face I would, it's hilarious, and too bad I don't have one of my sister's snapshot tomes with me." She clicked her tongue in disappointment. This only made Arthur retort with a piece of toast in his mouth.

"You just don't get it Anna, after living on stew and caught game almost every night, waking up having to eat that same game, I would trade anything to have a decent breakfast, and I'd even give up all my gold."

"Remind me about that next time, I wouldn't mind taking you for all your worth." Well that was hardly subtle Anna; I hope your only talking about taking his gold. Tuning Arthur and his happy munching out, I decided to dig into my own pair of eggs. As the food helped fill my empty stomach up I decided to find out what happened to my book.

"Hey Lissa, if you don't mind would you care to return my book to me?"

"What do you mean Robin; I didn't borrow any books from you." That's weird; either she's a very good actor or telling the truth. If she didn't take my book then who did, pondering the possibilities, I did a mental check of likely candidates that would take my book. Chrom and Fredrick wouldn't possibly do it, they were much too polite for the most part to take my things. Anna wouldn't do anything that wouldn't make her any gold. That leaves Arthur, now that I think about he does seem quite similar to Lissa, it wouldn't be out of character if he did this as some silly prank as revenge for getting him to pull Anna's cart. With the culprit narrowed down to Arthur, I asked him about it.

"So Arthur, where'd you put my book?" Appraising his reaction, I noted that he played the ignorant culprit role quite well. "What book Robin, you have to clarify or I won't know what you're talking about."

Oh you can't fool me, you must have it on you somewhere, and would you mind me checking your quiver?"

"Oh sure, search as many times as you want, I don't have your book though." Handing it over to me without any complaints, I was suspicious, could he have hidden it somewhere much harder to locate. His stony expression makes it difficult to read what he really means. Opening the quiver, I wasn't surprised to find nothing inside, turning back to him; he had quite a large grin on his face. I didn't like the look of it at all.

"Alright I'm assuming you want me to do something in exchange for you returning my book."

"Oh it's nothing much, Robin, I just want you to come outside." If that didn't set off alarm bells, then his toothy grin sure did. Arthur definitely had something devious planned up his sleeve.

"Well alright, I don't seem to have a choice anyway."

As we headed outside, Arthur led me to a pit where a fire was currently raging. Grasping at something inside his jacket, I noticed it looked vaguely familiar to my book, before I could stop him he threw the book into the fire, burst into flames almost instantly. I watched in shock as the pages slowly turned to ash, and my face slowly turned into one of anger.

Oh man, whatever happened now seeing Robin's face going from complete shock to an angry shade of red was well worth it. As I watched her fingers curl into fists, her lips quiver with what I assume was intense hatred, I raised my hand signaling her to stop. With a rock I picked up from the ground, I took careful aim and threw it at the arrow lodged into the side of the inn's roof. With the rock smashing through the arrows shaft, taking the feathers with it, the bindings had nothing to hold onto, and gravity did the rest. Falling back to earth, I placed the item in Robin's hands before making my way back to the inn.

Re-entering the inn, I tucked back into my breakfast, and explaining why it was the most important meal for me. Soon after Robin entered, with a rather mixed expression on her face, I couldn't tell if she was either angry or surprised, but one thing was for sure, she didn't see that one coming. This revelation only made the grin on my face wider that is until Chrom connected two and two together and decided to comment on it.

"Alright, what happened this time?"

"Arthur here was just pulling a little prank on me, no harm done." Huh, that kind of surprised me, I didn't think Robin would put this behind her; I got to give her some props for that. Though the glare she was giving me could burn through wood. I think it's a good time to avoid her for a while, who knows what she might think up for me. With Robin playing mediator, Chrom deemed it was fine and got back to his breakfast with Fredrick. As I just about finished with mine, I placed the plate on the counter so the innkeeper could wash them. Deciding it was still a good morning I went outside for a smidgen of fresh air. Walking through town I didn't notice someone was following me till they decided to grab my arm, almost causing me scream out in fear.

"Whoa there, didn't mean to scare you, just thought you could use some company.

"Oh hey there Anna, that's quite nice of you, I'm just enjoying a nice walk through the woods."

"Well then you wouldn't mind me tagging along do you?"

"Course not your more than welcome, though I prefer silence to noise when I'm taking my morning walks, so I can really enjoy the sights."

"Oh that's no problem at all Arthur, after all I have my own sights to enjoy." Walking through the forest with those words in mind, I could feel a presence behind me. I don't know why, but I felt chills go down my spine, as if I was prey about to be hunted by something in the shadows. The only thing I saw whenever I turned around was Anna; something about this situation was giving me the chills. When our eyes met, she gave me a wink, not sure how to respond, I turned back around and continued walking. Heading quite far into the road we ran into a villager. Appraising him as I picked myself off the floor, I noticed he was wearing clothing that seemed ripped as if he was in a fight. When he finally noticed who he bumped into, and saw our gear he immediately cried for help.

"Please you have to help my ma, them bandits came outta nowhere, and attacked our village."

"Alright, calm down kid, well do our best, Anna do you think you could run back to the inn and get Chrom and the others?"

"Alright Arthur, but you better not play hero and try to take them on by yourself, alright?"

"I can't guarantee that, because there is nothing that gets my blood pumping more than the sight of innocents being taken advantage of." With one last glance in my direction she left to inform the others, I just hoped they would get here in time.

"Alright kid you should probably go with her, I can handle this on my own."

"Can't do that mister, If you're gonna fight so am I." Seeing the determined look in his eyes, I realized that there was no way I was going to convince him otherwise.

"Alright, but you stay close to me, let's go."

Heading through the woods at a moderate pace, I came upon the village in question, signaling the kid to wait, I climbed the nearby tree for a better vantage point. With my increased height, I took in the sight before me. There were about ten bandits in total, about four of them were guarding a group of shapes huddled together, it was too difficult to see from here, but I assume they were the villagers. Taking out my bow, I measured the distance to the closest target, there were three patrolling the perimeter, and two had headed to where the chests were being kept, presumably to loot whatever they could. Glancing around I realized the last one was slowly approaching the kid with his weapon in hand and a sadistic smile on his face. With the kid's attention on my position, I signaled to him to remain quiet. As he neared him, I got into position directly above him and unsheathed my daggers.

Dropping off the branch of the tree, I fell right on top of him, before he could retaliate with his sword; I stabbed my daggers into his lungs, preventing him from screaming. With one final thrust, I looted his sword from the dead bandit and tossed it to the kid. Motioning him to come towards me, I asked him one last question.

"Are you sure you want to fight?"

"It's for my ma, I'll go through anything to get her back."

"Well said kid, then one last thing what's your name?"

"It's Donnel sir."

"Well met Donnel, I'm Arthur." With introductions over with, I motioned him to follow me, taking notice of the bandit that would no doubt head in this direction soon, I told Donnel to take position in a nearby bush, motioning him to slit his throat as soon as he walked past. The guard passing by, Donnel moved into action taking his sword and positioning it to swiftly take out the guard. With one jerky movement, it was done, the guard lay gasping for breath with his throat cut. Moving to Donnel, I dragged the body into the bush so as to conceal it from the rest.

"Good job," saying that I noticed Donnel appeared a little queasy, and I told him we had no time for that if he wanted to save his ma. The pep talk seemed to work as it brought him out of his stupor. Nearing the next building I noticed the four bandits guarding the prisoners were gone, replaced by a single large burly giant of a man. He was enormous, covered in thick animal fur, and large enough to intimidate anyone with a glare. With a bit of concern, I realized he was staring right at us, motioning for Donnel to get back to the trees, I turned around. The first thing I realized, Donnel was tied up and gagged, and the next was the four men who were guarding the villagers somehow snuck on me without my notice. Reprimanding myself mentally, I thought to myself if I get out of this alive, I really need to be better.

"Alright boys, you found me, now the question is do you think you can take me?"

"Ha, don't make us laugh its only one of you against four of us, you should just give up and well make it painless. Hero types like you always die first."

"Well if you know so much about 'types' like me then you should be aware we don't give up, even when the odds are stacked against us."

"Kill him boys, I've had enough of t that mouth of his!"

With that, the three men standing near him rushed at me with swords and axes. Taking out my own sword, I got into stance. As the first bandit reached me he attacked without coordination aiming to dismember me with brute force and luck, it easy to parry his blows and get him across the arm causing his left arm to become unusable. With a toothy grin, and my confidence rising, I held firm to my blade and prepared to strike back. As the other two reached me they began to take turns engaging me head on hoping to tire me out seeing as how they didn't have the skill to take me down themselves.

Managing to land a couple blows with each parry, I waiting for them to attack. Seeing as how attacking head on would leave my back exposed leaving me vulnerable for a counter attack. As the one armed bandit moved to strike, I quickly sidestepped his sloppy overhead, and moved too close for his axe to reach me and taking out my dagger, I plunged it into his chest, leaving him bleeding out on the floor. With one of their comrades down, the other two lost all sense of reason and charged in. With difficulty I parried their blows as best as I could, but eventually they were able to get a few cuts in causing blood to flow down my arms and legs. As my arms began to tire, I took out my other dagger and decided threw it as hard as I could, with luck on my side it pierced the bandits skin and cutting his tendon on the arm holding the sword, causing him to drop it, taking my chance I charged, picking up the fallen dagger and pushing it into his neck killing him. With two down, I realized I was too tired to grasp my sword, and having my daggers impaled inside the other's I could only smite sadly before being knocked about by the last one. Seeing how the fight had ended, the one watching came over. "On second thought, seeing as how you killed two of my men, were gonna make an example out of you so them villagers think twice before trying to fight."

"You sure you want to do that, I bite you know." I said with as much anger as I could muster, although it's hard to look intimidating, with a broken arm and enough cuts, to bleed out from. The next thing I feel is a hard knock to the back of the head, and before losing conscious, the last thing I thought was , damn I never did get to meet the rest of the shepherds.

* * *

Waking up, I slowly raised my head taking in my surroundings. I was tied to a post my gear stripped from my body, and the eyes that were on me only made me feel sad. There were about two dozen villagers staring in fear at the sight of the bandits and the man tied to the pole.

"I see you're awake, I hope this isn't too uncomfortable." I tried to retort with something sarcastic, but the moment I moved my mouth, I was slugged across the jaw.

"No talkin outta you there fella, this is my show, and in my show only I get to talk." Giving him the best glare I could, the only thing running through my mind was the fear of death. No man is prepared to die, and seeing as how I still had so much to experience, he could see it in my eyes. Licking his lips, he began to pummel me with blow after blow from his fists. Finally stopping when all I could see was red. Before killing me, he started to announce a speech.

"For all of you watching, this is what's going to happen if you try and fight against us, do any of you know who this man is?" With no response he continued.

"Some of you may have heard of him go by his other name, The Hunter, killer of bandits and defender of the weak, he even stopped my brother's business in the tracks before he could make off with the gold. Bless his soul wherever it maybe." Taking a closer look, I realized that the bandit chief did look quite similar to the one trying to sell innocents across the sea. How ironic, being treated as prey. Considering I couldn't see my way out of this I decided to go out with the best line I could think of, loosening the binds to one of my hands, I withdrew the rock in my pocket, and aimed it at his head. Yelling as loud as I could,

"Say hello to my little friend!" With their attention on me, I threw the rock with all my strength which was rather feeble since my arm was broken. I did however manage to get him in the face with it, this in turn caused his face to go a shade of red I've never thought possible. With one last grin making sure everyone could see, I watched in slow motion for his sword to finish me off. He swung aiming for my neck as if to decapitate me, probably as some sort of trophy to claim he managed to beat 'The Hunter' closing my eyes for the inevitable, I waited with bated breath. As the seconds ticked by my ears was occupied by the sound of running steps and a loud crash. Opening my eyes, I was greeted by the most welcome sights possible. Chrom and the others were finally here, with some strange man with blue hair holding a bow, and a red haired woman on horseback. Glancing back to the bandit chief I saw the arrow protruding from his chest. Well guess I've got some explaining to do.

"I'm sorry alright, I didn't mean to charge in by myself, but seeing those people tied up and huddled in fear I couldn't just let them cower any longer.

"You could have just waited Arthur; I don't like seeing you get hurt."

"I'm sorry Anna, it was stupid of me and I apologize, on the bright side, at least you got here in the nick of time." I said a little sheepishly. With a shake of her head, she decided not to worry about it and smiled instead. It calmed my nerves seeing her smile, it was quite radiant, after almost dying, I could kill for some happy moments.

"Alright, guess I should have seen this coming, to make it up to me you're treating me to something nice when we get back to Ylisse, for making me worry so much."

"Whatever you want Anna it's on me." With a satisfied smile on her face, she headed off to see if anyone else was injured. Walking back to Robin to deliver my report on the scene, I bumped my broken arm into someone, turning to apologize I realized it was Donnel.

"Oh hey Donnel, didn't see you there, so how's it going."

"Good, I asked Chrom if I could join your group, cause I want to be a hero too."

"Oh that's nice, wait what?"

"Ye seeing as how you were so heroic and calm, even when they caught you and were about to kill you, it made me think 'I want to be like that too, living the life with no fear.' Doing heroic things, saving people, and fighting for justice, it's been my dream ever since I was small."

"Hmm, well I guess that's okay, it's nice to have you then Donnel and let me welcome you to the Shepherds." Offering my unbroken arm, I held it out for a handshake. With a firm grip we formally accepted each other as comrades in arms. Continuing on my way, I entered the tent set up for Chrom, finding Robin and Lissa here as well.

"I suppose you want to know what happened before you got there."

"That would be helpful Arthur." Chrom watched me carefully, making me slightly nervous as if I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

"Alright, so even with extensive warning from Anna, the moment I saw the villagers tied up and cowering in fear, I couldn't stop myself. In fact the last thing on my mind was wait for reinforcements to arrive. In regards to Donnel, he wanted to fight, and trust me when I say this, but the look in his eyes told me that he wouldn't take no for answer. Everything went smoothly so far, till I guess we weren't being quiet enough and we ended up being ambushed by four of them. Donnel was captured and I had to take on three of them myself. I took two of them out before being knocked out and the rest, we you saw what happened. So I was wondering, how'd you find the village?"

"Oh, that was because Robin already decided to check it out beforehand, so you have her to thank." Glancing at Robin, I couldn't help, but notice the large smile on her face. She must have seen this as karma for pranking her.

"But in all seriousness Arthur, were glad you're okay."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to lose a friend only after the first week. Besides you were pretty cool out there, acting all defiant and showing no fear, even though you could have died."

"Thanks Lissa, it wasn't a fun experience though, and I definitely don't need a repeat it."

"Well get some rest Arthur, you've earned it, we'll be back in Ylisse by tomorrow." Heading back to my tent, I flopped onto the bedroll and tried to sleep. After a bit of time passed, and my arm continued to ache without stopping, I decided to pay Lissa a visit. Getting out of bed, I felt a bit woozy, but steadied myself before making my way over to Lissa. Upon arrival I waited outside the tent as she finished her conversation with someone else. As the minutes rolled by, their conversation seemed to finally end, and I bumped into Robin as she went to exit Lissa's tent. She gave me a quick apology before scurrying off, probably to bury her head inside one of her books again. Moving on, I entered Lissa's tent in hopes of finding a solution to my aching arm.

"Well hey Arthur, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be sleeping? Oh no, did your arm fall off?" Deciding that the barrage of questions probably weren't going to stop without my intervention, I decided to tell her.

"Oh it's nothing that major Lissa, it's just my arm was aching pretty badly when I tried to sleep and the pain prevented me from dosing off. So I came to you hoping for some magic to help make me feel better."

"Oh you didn't have to come all the way to me silly, Anna knows enough about that to numb the pain too."

"Oh, to be honest I had no idea, well, she sure can do a lot, and honestly it's pretty amazing."

"Well as one friend to another, I'm rooting for you Arthur." She said with a big smile, of course, I wasn't sure what she was rooting for me for, but I couldn't really ask when she looked so happy, so instead I said my thanks for the help and went back to my tent.

With the ache mostly gone, I could finally get some sleep. It didn't take long for my exhaustion to pull me into the welcoming darkness.

* * *

"Alright Shepherds, were back in Ylisse, I'll be paying Emmeryn a visit with Robin, Lissa, and Fredrick to deliver our report. If you don't mind, would you be so kind as to show the new recruits to the barracks Sully?"

"Whatever you say boss, alright cubs let's get a move on." With a pace being set, the rest of us made our way to what was the barracks. Walking through the town, I noticed it was quite large, with merchant stalls scattered everywhere, people going about their business, and buildings that seemed to stretch for miles. I couldn't see the end of the forest let alone the actual size of the city and at the top of it all was a large castle that seemed fit for royalty. That must have been where Chrom and the others were headed. All of a sudden, a surprise smack in the back of the head brought my attention to where I was. Apparently having lagged behind, from all the sightseeing, Sully had made it her duty to get the lost lamb back with the herd.

"Come on Arthur, no time for sightseeing, we got to introduce the new recruits to everyone first."

"Alright alright I'm coming," while rubbing the back of my head, I hurried after them.

After passing by some more blocks of buildings, we reached an open area that looked like a practice field with all sorts of training dummies scattered about, at the end of the field was a set of doors leading to a large stone building. It appeared to be rather well made; having the same sort of look as the castle I saw when I first laid eyes on the city. Fearing another smack in the head, I quickly moved to where the group was.

"Alright before we go in, I have to warn you, some of them can be a little weird, but they're all good people." With that final message, Sully opened the doors to a stony area, where many different boxes and weapon stands resided. There were quite a number of people milling about going on with their business, until the door was opened, which prompted them to come greet the new arrivals.

"Welcome back Sully I hope you weren't hurt during your trip," said a rather meek looking kid, I swore he couldn't even be considered an adult yet, and his hat was way too big for his body.

"Ha-ha, you don't have to worry bout me Ricken, I'm unstoppable remember that."

"Not as unstoppable as the Vaike, no one's stronger than ol Teach," yelled a blonde haired man, he was built quite big with enough muscles to carry large weapons, and he did seem a little too prideful though.

"Oh you wanna go, come on I'll take you on anytime Vaike." Before this could turn into a brawl, a hazel haired woman stepped in.

"Come on you two, this is no time to be fighting, don't we have new Shepherds to introduce."

"Alright, but don't think this is over Vaike well settle this some other time."

"Oh good, well then I guess I'll go first, I'm Sumia, pleasure to meet you," she said stretching out her hand towards me for a shake. Before I could reach her though she tripped falling face first, wait there was nothing there, how did she trip on flat ground? I thought to myself. Offering her a hand, I pulled her back on her feet.

"Oh sorry, about that I always feel like I have two left feet except for when when I'm on my Pegasus."

"Nah, it's cool Sumia, no harm down." Turning my attention back to the others, I almost leaped back in shock, as raising my head caused me to look into the eyes of a robed red haired woman carrying a book.

"Very peculiar, this one appears to be quite adept at befriending others, extremely tolerant, and holds no sense of formality."

"uhh, thanks? I think," asking for help with my eyes, Sully noticed my distress and came over.

"Oh hey Arthur, looks like you met Miriel, she does this to all recruits, just bear with it for now," she told me with a lighthearted smile. Well, I guess she wasn't that bad, I mean it doesn't look like she's going to cast any weird curses on me; I shivered remembering something from my past. All of a sudden there was a loud horse whistle almost giving me a heart attack.

"Alright since everyone's here I'd like to introduce the recruits now, everyone meet in the practice field." Moving to the practice field, I realized there was actually quite a good number of Shepherds, everyone looked battle hardened to some degree, but could still carry an expression of joy unclouded by pain and suffering. With everyone gathered, we began introducing ourselves.

"Well since I was first, guess I'll start," clearing my throat to make sure everyone could hear me, I began. "My name is Arthur, and this is my weapon," unsheathing my sword I waved it around making sure they could all see. "It's made of ordinary steel and I relieved it from a bandit a couple days, I named it Dawnbringer, because it's more fun that way. You may also know me by my other name, the hunter, slayer of bandits and protector of the weak at your service." Giving them a slight bow, I held a goofy expression on my face as the rest of my friends introduced themselves.

"I'm Anna the merchant at your service, I'll be taking care of any of your shopping needs so don't be shy and spend some gold."

"er, I'm Donnel, nice to meet you all."

With introductions out of the way, we started to get to know one another, and I got learn the name of the man who saved my skin the other night.

"So, Arthur I couldn't help but take notice of the bow you carry on your back. I take it you dabble in the art of archery?"

"Course Virion, I'm quite a decent shot too if I don't say so myself."

"Well then, it's nice there's someone else here that can finally understand the difficulty of using a bow is, we should have a friendly contest in the future."

"Sure, I wouldn't mind adding, The Greatest Archer to my name after all," I said playfully before moving on to the last person I had yet to meet, he was a tall armored man, with quite messy hair as if he just woke up, as I was just about to reach him I walked into something. Strange I don't remember a wall being there, wait a minute, that's not a wall, it's a giant suit of armor, and its moving, how did I miss that.

"Oh hey there Arthur, nice speech, I can see you really stand out, unlike me."

"Oh hey, uh, it was Kellam wasn't it?"

"Yep that's me invisible Kellam."

"Oh come now, don't be like that I'm sure there are people that notice you, heck if they don't then you'd make a great assassin, but in all seriousness, don't let something like that get you down Kellam, hey I noticed you so I'm sure with a little effort, everyone else will too."

"I'll try Arthur, anyway it was nice meeting you."

"Ye it was nice bumping into you to Kellam." Walking back towards that messy haired man, I opened the conversation with a question.

"Is it just me or did you just wake up?"

"Hmm, oh Arthur, making sure you've met everyone huh, nah my hair's always like this, and it's just too much of a hassle to comb it you know."

"Mmm, I can understand that, in fact I've had that feeling myself a number of days as well." As time passed, I encountered Anna again, having a small conversation with Sully about some skin product before she turned her attention to me.

"Well Arthur, here we are in the big city, how about you repay me for my troubles now, the sun's still high in the sky, and the shops well be open for a while."

"Alright, let's go Anna," but before we could leave the barracks, Robin and company came rushing in as if death itself was on their heels. Watching their shocked expressions, I had a feeling nothing good could come from this.

"Shepherds, I have an announcement, we'll be setting off immediately to intervene with some Plegians harassing our lands, and the kidnapping of one of our own." As questions about who was kidnapped, and why the Plegians were attacked traveled around, Robin got our attention by wolf whistle. It made me kind of envious, seeing as how I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it. I tried sticking fingers into my mouth and blowing, but it never seems to work.

"I know you're all tired, but there's no time to waste. I need a everyone ready to march in an hour." Turning to Anna, I told her

"Guess we'll have to postpone our little arrangement for later."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Reunions**

**Author's Notes**: And here's chapter 3 readers new and old, getting near the end of the beginning part and finally closer to the time skip, next chapter is going to be the end of Gangrel, and the set up for something greater. Got a lot of stuff planned for after the time skip like out realm adventures.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening

* * *

"Alright everyone that's the plan, now if you're ready let's move out."

After putting the plan into my head, I moved to where Robin directed me. Apparently, I would be helping free the Shepherd that was kidnapped, supporting me would be Lissa. When we got to the location Robin specified, I noticed there was a group of what looked like Plegian soldiers standing guard near an abandoned shack. Motioning for Lissa to stay quiet, I moved closer to the shack, getting within a few feet of it, I could hear the sounds of someone yelling for help. It sounded vaguely familiar, but there was no time to worry about such things now.

Sneaking up on the shack with Lissa in tow, I moved to a closer vantage point, getting within a few feet of the men standing guard. I unsheathed my dagger and sword preparing to strike. It was going to be difficult taking out the four of them together, in realizing this, I picked up a rock from the ground and threw it near a bush to the side. Hitting the bush, a clamor of noise was heard that drew the attention of the guards with one of them telling the others to check it out. As I watched the three guards stalk towards the location of the noise, I moved in to take out the remaining guard. Giving a dagger a throw, it embedded itself into the guard's head causing him to fall forward, where I moved to catch his falling body. With his body in my arms, I moved it into the bush I was in previously to conceal his body from the others.

With a look around the shack, one of the solders yelled out, "Hey, where'd you go, boss ain't going to be happy you skipped out on guarding this here woman!"

As the other guards went looking for their missing friends, I surveyed the locations of the remaining guards. One of them took up the position of their now deceased comrade, and the other two were patrolling around calling out his name. Taking out my bow, I made swift work of the meandering men, and turned my attention to the last remaining guard after disposing of the last two bodies. I motioned to Lissa to come closer, and walking side by side we greeted the last remaining guard.

"Alright there buddy, now I got two things to tell you. First, you can just leave peacefully and I won't even bother trying to kill you, or you can make your last stand here and be gutted like a pig."

"Ha, you won't get out of this alive, Ylissean dog, it's four against two and you don't stand a chance." With that being said, I moved the bush hiding the bodies of his comrades and with a quickly paling face he responded

"You'll have to go through me, there's no life for me if I retreat anyway."

As his eyes steeled for the coming fight, I sighed and held my blades firm in my hand. With a charge he came running at me, but his fear of death was quite clear, I could taste it in the air. Using the back of my blade, I knocked him out and left his body sitting in the bush with the other three. On the bright side, you can't blame him for being knocked out; hopefully he'll do the smart thing and start a new life. Searching through the bodies, I found the key leading to the knocked shack and moved to open it. Surprised was the first thing that came to mind, because the person that we were trying to rescue turned out to be none other than Maribelle.

"Oh, Arthur, it appears you have a knack for rescuing ladies it seems."

"It's what I do best," I told her with a grin spreading across my face. As we finished with pleasantries, Lissa came forward and gave her a large hug; they must be childhood friends I noted. As the two of them hugged it out, the sound of thundering footsteps could be heard, turning in that direction I noticed a few things. There was a boy I seemed to recall from that large hat running towards us, a group of rather nasty looking Plegians were trailing behind, and he was calling for help.

"Uh ladies, you might want to postpone your reunion with each other until we get out of here safely," getting their attention to direct it at the oncoming horde of soldiers. Taking quick measure of the weapons they were carrying, the boy with the hat's name suddenly came to mind.

"Ricken, that you, what are you doing here?"

"I came to help!"

Although I could appreciate the sentiment, I vaguely remember hearing that we weren't supposed to let Ricken fight yet, since he was considered too young. Seeing as he's here now, there's nothing I can do about it, so might as well make the best of this situation. Motioning him to duck, I let loose a couple arrows hoping to thin their numbers before they got here. Of the dozen running towards us, I managed to tag four of them with arrows, some hitting their legs causing them to topple over and in the chest puncturing a lung making them bleed out slowly. I told Lissa and Maribelle to take cover behind me and provide support when needed.

With Ricken next to me, we took on the remaining eight soldiers. Unsheathing my sword, and my daggers, I prepared for combat. One of the more angry looking soldiers charged at me first, clumsily baying for blood like a rabid animal. He appeared to be overriding his fear of death with the adrenaline of combat. Ducking under his first swing, I cut the tendons in his arm causing them to become useless as they fell to his sides. Giving him a good but to the head with the handle of my dagger, I moved on to my next opponent.

There were about six more of them, taking note of the smashed corpse probably after taking a hit from the spells Ricken was throwing out. Turning my attention back to the enemies, I narrowly dodged a sword blow aimed at my neck. Bracing myself, I turned to my attacker who was carrying a pole arm. Taking his weapon into consideration, I rushed him as quick as I could to get within the safe zone that would make it difficult to attack me. Driving my dagger into his heart, with a yell, he collapsed, his breath becoming more ragged as his life slipped away. Slowly, I pulled the dagger out of his chest before taking a blow to the head from a wooden spoon. Wait what, a spoon? Why does it hurt so much, Looking up I took another hit to the head and a kick to the chest, winding me.

"You gonna die pretty boy, gonna pay for killing my friends."

"Hey there big guy, let's take a second to talk about this."

I tried distracting him hoping to buy myself enough time to regain my breath. As he moved in to finish me off, I watched as it came crashing down. Course in the next moment I was still awake so that counted for something. It appears Lissa decided to strike him in the back of the head, knowing how much that hurt the last time she hit me, I felt sorry for the guy, but he's still alive at least.

"Thanks Lissa, thought I was a goner there, glad to know you have my back."

"Glad to help Arthur."

After regaining my breath, I took a look at the number of enemies remaining, and only saw two more of them who were in the middle of trying to take Ricken down. Watching him duck and weave due to his small size was quite interesting; he made full use of his smaller stature to full advantage and when they got tired he would blast them with the occasional wind tome. Deciding to make it easier, I took out my bow and notched an arrow. I fired at the one who wasn't hit by Ricken's spell, with his back turned he was an easy target, as the arrow flew true knocking him over. With only one soldier remaining I charged forward with my sword and grabbed his shoulder forcing him into the blade, as the blade entered his body, it let out a satisfying schlunk.

"Now that that's taken care of let's get back to the others before more of them join the party."

"That sounds like a splendid plan, Arthur; let us make haste before more ruffians show up indeed."

Setting out to the meeting point, we arrived just before the others. Taking stock of the expressions on their face I could tell something bad happened during our fight with the Plegians.

"Okay guys, judging by the looks on your faces something bad happened, well let's hear it no point leaving the rest of us in the dark." Turning to Robin, I instead got my answer from Chrom

"Were at war Arthur, it seems old blood has caused strife to build between Ylisse and Plegia."

"Well that sounds serious, we have a plan?"

"Of course we do, we don't give in, but first we have to tell my sister about this and see what her opinion of it is." With that we started traveling back to Ylisse without even a break. Well I guess times are tough when you've got a war on your hands.

Traveling through the road, I decided to strike up a conversation with Lissa and Maribelle.

"So how long have you guys known each other?"

"Oh I've been with Lissa since she was a child darling and have watched her grow into the lady she is today, although her manners could use a little work."

"Hey, don't listen to her Arthur my manners are fine, I just like to pull the occasional prank or two."

"Ha-ha, I can understand that Lissa, I like to pull pranks on people too, recently I find pranking Robin is pretty funny."

"I totally get that, she makes that great face when she's pranked right?"

"That's pretty much what I do it for, her face makes my day."

"Would you too kindly stop reminiscing on being like children?"

Turning to Maribelle at the same time, and with a pout on both are faces we told her, "but it's fun Maribelle, what's wrong with doing something fun, you're not going to tell us to stop are you?"

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it dear, it's just a lady should hold herself with much higher respect darling"

"Ah there's no harm in it, besides I think Lissa's fine the way she is, bright and happy, no need to go around pulling teeth. Besides we already have you as the refined lady Maribelle."

"Yeah, I like myself; as long as it puts a smile on my friend's faces then I'm happy."

"Alright enough about that, let's talk about something more fun."

"Oh do you mean the bits and pieces of table etiquette which is such a grand topic, where to start."

"Ya, I was thinking more on the lines of what prank we should pull on Robin next." I declared noting the disappointed sigh Maribelle gave at the mention of another prank. I tried reassuring her that this was a worthy endeavor and to wait until after she sees Robin's reaction.

"Oh hey, why not prank her with one of the classics, like an exploding can?"

"Hmm, I don't know, we should go for something much grander, something that she'll never see coming."

"I hope this prank is worth this face you speak of, since we are taking up our dear tactician's time."

"Oh trust us Maribelle, when you get to see the face she makes you'll have a good laugh, probably the best laugh you've had in days. Now here's the plan, it's genius I tell you genius."

* * *

"What's wrong Robin, you're shivering, and did you happen to catch a cold?"

"Oh no, it's not that Chrom, I just had a strange feeling someone was talking about me, and I got the sense that whatever it is, it can't be good."

"Well I'll keep you safe no matter the odds."

"Thanks I appreciate that Chrom, but my gut tells me I better be prepared, just hope it's not another of their pranks."

"Oh, do you happen to mean my sister and Arthur?"

"Who else could I mean, they're the only ones that love to prank others, I just hope they never team up one of these days, or it'll be the end of me that's for sure."

"Hmm, can't be all that bad since they are doing it in good fun Robin."

"Oh you don't know the half of it Chrom, just wait till they prank you one of these days, maybe Arthur and Lissa will finally let up a bit."

* * *

So we've just returned to Ylisse and apparently the rest of the Shepherds are allowed to go about the rest of the day seeing as it was only noon. Thinking about how to spend the rest of my time, a certain red head came careening into my vision. The next thing I know I'm looking straight into the face of a certain merchant with quite a sly looking grin on her face.

"Alright Arthur, I think it's time you repaid that debt now. "I get it Anna, shall we go then milady?" Knowing when to give up, I offered my hand, which she took with quite a grip, felt like she was trying to prevent me from running away. I had a creeping suspicion she had something planned for the two of us. Walking through the town with Annie was pretty bizarre. I didn't hate it, because for the most part I sort of found it interesting like I was finding out more about it. One thing for certain, she really loves money, whether it's earning it or appraising something of value. The odd thing about this was, I felt at peace walking around town with Anna, which in itself was a surprise. The answer to my earlier question came quite abruptly, when we were inside of a cake shop.

"And this is our final stop of the day Arthur." A cake shop, guess everyone likes spending money on sweets, so what's it going to be Anna every cake in the shop?"

"Hmm, nothing like that, just something in the back that I reserved." With that said, she let out a loud wolf whistle; this caused someone looking just like Anna to pop out from the back.

"Ha, Anna I was wondering when you'd get here, is this the one you were talking about then?"

"Is this the one you mentioned in your letter Anna?"

"This would be him, his name's Arthur. A man of average height, with a lean build due to his many years of traveling, with senses honed by countless battles with bandits. His defining features would be his raven black hair, kind brown eyes, and angular jawline. What people remember mostly about him is his personality, where it can drive him to action. He is driven by a moral code that punishes the ones against his sense of justice and forces him to fight for the weak."

Interrupting her rather intense speech describing yours truly, I asked her, "umm Anna how come you're describing my features to your twin sister, can't she see me." The way she replied to my question sent shivers down my spine.

"Oh I'm just making sure the family is ready for you."

"Umm, should I be worried?"

"Hmm, there's nothing for you to worry about Arthur, it's just so my family's prepared for you."

"Well alright, I trust you Anna, so what should we do now, introduce me to your mother?"

"Oh, moving a little quick there, but you're not ready for that shock yet, I was thinking more along the lines of strolling through town enjoying cake."

"You had me at cake."

What followed was a relaxing walk through town as we munched on desserts. I especially like the custard filled ones. Apparently, I was making the same blissful face I made while I enjoyed breakfast at the inn, so she found out I had a big sweet tooth, hopefully that doesn't bite me later. As we returned to the barracks, I noticed we got a few winks and raised eyebrows, at some point we were holding hands. I don't recall that happening though, the cakes must have distracted me, in my embarrassment I thanked Anna for the great time and moved to check my room.

Changing to a more comfortable set of cloths, I put on a simple cotton over shirt, and cloth pants. Then I checked my tools' condition and some of my other gears, finding them in order, I opened my chest where I kept my gold. Shock, followed by a dark rage at who would dare take from me everything, until I noticed a note attached to the bottom.

Hey Arthur

If you're reading this then you noticed all your gold is missing, but

Don't fret I'm simply keeping it so you don't waste it on any useless

purchases

Robin

Brow knitting, I decided she took it too far, my purchases are not stupid, my sweet expenses are sensible and sane even if I may have bought enough to purchase a sword or two. Racing through the hallways, the courtyard, and the rooms, I settled on Robin sitting in her desk writing something in her book. Just as I was about to enter her room and demand my sweets gold back, I was struck in the face.

Wiping the pieces of pie out of my face, I stuck some of its pieces into my mouth, custard a classic. I directed my attention to the now laughing Lissa and Robin; I felt betrayed and made sure she knew.

"Lissa, how could you, I trusted you, we were going to be prank buddies."

"Oh Arthur, I just couldn't help it, you know me, I'm not one to turn down a good prank. Especially, when I get to find people you make funny faces, like you and Robin."

"Were still on for our other plan though right?"

"Course I wouldn't give it that chance for anything." Turning to Robin I decided to congratulate her on getting a pie in my face, by making me rush into it with a ruse.

"That was pretty good Robin, alright you got me, now what?"

"Now Arthur, I return your gold, and you can put one point for Robin."

"Ah, tricky tricky, alright, but just so you know this isn't over, more will come, and you should be prepared, also Lissa your fair game too."

"Hey, I was only joining in Arthur, but hey the more the merrier." With the gauntlet being thrown, I grabbed my gold in a sack Robin left on the table and made my way outside. Walking through the courtyard I took a break breather on a bench to decide what to do for the rest of the day.I decided to pay another visit to the cake shop so picking myself off the bench I got moving. As I walked through the courtyard, I came across someone sitting in a bush; I don't remember seeing him before.

"Hey there, what are you doing sitting in that bush, admiring the leaves?"

"Hmm, oh uh, I was checking the leaves yeah, got to make sure their healthy, complicated stuff."

"Oh, well I was looking for some company, about to get some sweets myself want to come with when you're done? At the mention of the words sweets, I noticed his ears perked up like a dog's would at the mention of food. Seems he was stuck between finishing his job and sating his sweet tooth. So I edged him on, by telling him all about the myriad of desserts just waiting to be eaten.

"Ah what the hay, let's go, didn't want to do this job anyway, alright lead the way."

"Great, come on let's go, don't want them to run out." With that, we made our way through town to the bakery. Through the bustling streets filled with crowds finishing their shopping for the day, and milling about after a day of work. As we neared the bakery, I pulled out my sack of gold, to make sure all the gold was there and Robin hadn't played another prank on me, thankfully everything was there.

"Alright here we are, as a gift from me to you for accompanying a lonely man on his journey to engross his sweet tooth, I'll pay for it."

"Appreciate it," he said with some gusto in his voice, in which we proceeded to buy enough sugar filled pastries to cover a table. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, the creams and sugars would collide against my taste buds in sweet bliss. The smooth chocolate, the aromatic vanilla, the many flavors came together creating a taste sensation that drove my mouth mad. Calmly, we ate in peace no words being needed to communicate our thoughts as we let our joyful expressions talk for us.

"Oh I never caught your name, Mr. Leaves are interesting."

"Ha-ha, alright enough with the nicknames, the name's Gaius, resident roguish thief for hire and lover of all that is sweet."

"Pleasure to meet you Gaius; I'm Arthur, lover of fine confections and an occasional hunter of bandits."

"If you like sweets wait till you have a taste of this."

With excitement, Gaius pulled out a confection he was hiding from within his person somewhere; I was amazed that they were kept in such good condition, without being crushed when he moved about. Grasping his proffered confection, I first took a whiff of it; it smelled like fresh vanilla with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. Next, I took a small tentative bite to get an idea of its taste and texture. The taste was incredible, it was a nice sweet flavor with a bite from the nutmeg that seemed to wrap around my taste buds. The texture was like velvet, soft and smooth as I bit down on it. To put it simply, it was divine, I spent a good minute savoring that one piece before, popping the rest of it into my mouth where it traveled to my waiting gullet.

"That was incredible, the taste, the texture, the aroma, it blended together to form a masterpiece in the realm of confections." I praised it as tears welled up in my arms.

"Thanks for the compliment Arthur; it's a rare joy to be able to share these with someone that has a sweet tooth as big as mine."

"Wouldn't it be better to collect the recipes?"

"Ah, I don't know how to use the kitchen for the life of me."

"Oh, well I have enough skill in the kitchen to do some things; anyway if you have the recipe I can make some more of the treats, that way you don't have to hide them all the time."

"That's a nice offer there Peppy."

"Hmm, my name's Arthur if you forgot."

"Nah, that's alright Peppy, it just fits you, I give friends of mine nicknames, and it's what I do."

"Well alright no harm in that sweety." Okay that may not have been the best nickname, judging by Gaius's strange expression that may have been a little awkward.

"Okay Peppy, calm down that was a little weird."

"Let's just forget I said anything Gaius, I'll just leave the nicknames to you. So want me to escort you back to the castle, I'm staying near there anyway."

"Sounds good, though it's probably over by now, but what the hay, may as well pretend I was there the whole time if it isn't."

"Hmm alright, then onwards my fellow compatriot to the castle were our destiny waits."

So we set off back to the castle, I'll have to see about getting a prank planned for Lissa too. Walking through the streets of Ylisse at this time of night, there were rarely any people milling about, they seemed to all have moved indoors, to either sleep after a long day, or relax with loved ones. As we neared the castle I noticed that the usually stationed guards weren't anywhere to be seen. Something strange was going on I could definitely feel it. I immediately set off to find Robin in the courtyard with Gaius trailing behind me.

As I entered the courtyard, I was met with a very familiar mask that I could place on only one person. With myself bursting through the doors, after rushing through the halls, all eyes turned to me. There seemed to be a palpable silence in the air, as if I was interrupting a very delicate moment. Trying to diffuse the situation I greeted my old friend as calmly as I could.

"Hey there Mar Mar, long time no see, glad to see your still being all mysterious and masked." There was a slight gasp from the others in the room as I greeted my friend, with Chrom just about breathing down my neck for answers.

"You know Marth, Arthur why didn't you say anything about it?"

"You mean at the arena, when I was on his team, that's because you never asked."

"Alright, moving on, what do you mean there's going to be an assassination?"

"That on this night, there's going to be an attempt on your sister's life, that could tip the scales of the balance in this world. I'm here to put a stop to it so the future is no longer doomed."

"How can I believe you came from the future and know all this?" That was a weird question, so not only is he masked and mysterious, but a time traveler too. Well that's pretty interesting to say the least.

"I'm about to save your life from him." Marth nodded towards the bush behind him, as if on cue, a robed assassin came bursting out of the brush, sword readied and charging towards him. Marth flew through the air, landing behind him to catch him off guard, and slash him across the back taking him out in one fluid move. It was beautiful to watch him perform such a graceful attack, it made me forget about the purpose of it for a second. I decided to clap to which got a snicker out of Robin.

"I believe this proof shall suffice?" Before Chrom could respond, I decided to move things along.

"Bravo bravo, you came from the future, now what, do we all die tonight or do you have a plan?"

Before Marth could respond, out of nearby bush, came another assassin, sprinting towards Marth, I began to move. As he moved to dodge, his foot fell on the blade of the last assassin causing him to slip, on the bright side it made the assassin's blade missed, however it did slash his mask. As the assassin tried to regain his footing for another strike, I threw a dagger aimed at his neck, finishing him before he could recover. As I walked over to the downed body to retake my dagger, I noticed Robin and Chrom with their wide eyed stares and hanging mouths.

"What happened, what's with your faces you guys see a ghost or something?" Chrom grabbed the side of my head and directed it at a blue haired woman standing where Marth should have been. Where Marth should have been, stood instead, a blue haired woman wearing his clothes and carrying his sword.

"You're a woman?"

"And apparently quite the actress too, I'm surprised it took you this long to notice." Wasn't that surprised to be honest, since I did have my suspicions, but hey that's what the mask is for, so there must have been some reason she didn't want anyone to find out. While she finished explaining to us what that meant, I turned to Gaius and pried him for some more information.

"So Gaius, mind telling me what you were really doing in that bush."

"No need to get all defensive Peppy, I'm over that now, didn't really want to hurt you guys anyway, you seem like nice people. Besides I'd rather eat sweets then waste my time doing work."

"True true, I can relate to that, so I'll assume you're gonna help us out though."

"Course, couldn't let my sweets eating buddy die on me."

"Glad to know you care Gaius."

* * *

Alright I'm currently running through the halls, apparently I'm on guard duty since I'm use to picking people off with a bow and sneaking around the dark. Though I like to think of myself as more of a shadowy crusader then some cloaked assassin. Anyway, I got to talk to Emmeryn for once, so that was interesting. It's pretty boring so far though. I don't see anything, I can hear fighting though, wonder what other sweets Gaius hides under his clothes though.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of padded footsteps. Hearing the noise, I crept into a suitable corner to make myself harder to detect. Out of a nearby corner, came a rather strange looking person. She looked feminine with the protrusions coming from the chest, but what was strange were the rabbit ears and lack of human ears. She stopped outside Emmeryn's room, so I assumed she wasn't a threat. Sneaking up on her, I decided to scare her a bit for my amusement. Moving closer, I got within a few feet of her before getting ready to give her a jump.

"Would you not play your childish games?"

"Oh, what gave me away, I thought I was being sneaky."

"The Taguel's ears are more honed to the sounds of the world than a human's."

"Ah, well then that plan's a bust, well seeing as you haven't attacked me yet, what are you here for, oh rabbit eared one."

With a slight frown at her nickname, "I've come to aid you against this devious plot to eliminate your ruler that so many are fond of."

"Well alright, I'm on guard duty, so I guess every bit of help counts."

We spent the next couple of minutes, in dull silence. I tried breaking it every once in a while with some silliness, but she would brush it off. Well that's no fun; I have to break her cool demeanour someday. While thinking about how bored I was getting, my thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of running footsteps. I motioned for her to stay quiet while I waited for them to round the corner.

They came charging down the hallways like mad dogs. Not sure how they found out which room was Emmeryn's already, but the imminent arrival several soldiers didn't give me any time to ponder on that subject. Hurrying back to the rabbit eared stranger, I told her of the oncoming threat as I concealed myself in the corner again awaiting their arrival. In a moment they came through the door, as they looked around for Emmeryn, I made my move. Withdrawing my daggers, I aimed for their necks and chests, as I threw them. One was struck in the chest, collapsing his lung and putting him down in time, the other dagger missed by a hairs breadth as they turned on me.

There were still three more soldiers to take care of as I took out my sword. Moving to strike, I never got the chance to. Something furry and huge came brambling out of nowhere and knocked them all down, it looked ferocious, but at the same time quite majestic. I spent a good amount of time staring before I realized the woman was in front of me again closing my mouth.

"Do try to stay focused or you'll lose your head."

"Oh, yeah sorry about that, it's just you can transform?"

"All Taguel can use the power of beast stones to morph into our beast forms."

"That's so awesome; you've got to let me see sometime. I always wanted to ride a giant rabbit." I said with a rather blissful smile on my face. Which I got laughter for, well at least I made her laugh. Anyway we should probably check on the others.

"You mind guarding Emmeryn, while I go check on the others?"

"I do not mind human, go about your business."

"I'm named Arthur by the way."

"Panne is my name."

Well alright then, I know her name now, sounds pretty strange when I think about it, but I guess that's okay, especially when you're not human. As I continued walking down the corridors, I noticed that for the most part, I couldn't hear the sounds of clashing blades, ragged breaths, and pained cries. Guess most of the battle is over with then if I can't hear the sounds of battle. So I picked up speed and searched through the castle for the others, that's when I got to the library. All the noise I was making must have attracted a lot of attention because before I knew it, there were seven Plegians following me. Well then, don't assume you've won until you've actually won Arthur. Since I was still wearing a hood and didn't stand out too much as an Ylissean, I tried to play myself off as on their side.

"Hey fellas, why are you following me, don't you have a princess to chase?"

"I thought you were some Ylissean dog, but you must be Gaius, our hired rouge eh." Thank the hood, they don't actually know what Gaius looks like, lucky.

"Yep that's me Gaius, anyway I saw the princess go through the courtyard." As I pointed them towards the courtyard, I slowly unsheathed my daggers. With their heads simultaneously turning towards the direction I pointed towards, I attacked. Slicing through the first two and moving towards the last five, I managed to nick one of them in the arm, but it wasn't enough.

"Get the traitor, use his blood for paint!"

"As much as I'd love to be used as paint, I've got things to do so ta-ta!"

I ran for dear life, as I was chased by the five remaining soldiers. Hoping someone would notice the predicament I was in, I ran past the courtyard towards Panne. Before reaching Panne, I heard a familiar yell telling me to duck, so I fell to the floor and laid myself flat. A second later, a rather huge fireball past by over my head, it singed my clothes and made me sweat just from the proximity of it to myself. The five soldiers weren't so lucky, being reduced to ashes the moment it hit them. As I patted myself clean from the dirty ground, Robin came into view just as I was about clean.

"Alright Arthur, mind explaining why you're not with Emmeryn?"

"Don't worry about that Robin; I left a bunny in charge of guarding her. It'll be fine what could go wrong."

"Arthur, sometimes I really do want to throttle you, how can a bunny possibly guard her?"

"Well when the bunny's as smart as a person, the size of a cart, and on our side, I think it can do a mighty fine job guarding one itsy bitsy princess."

"Alright fine, I trust you Arthur, you haven't let me down before."

"Oh Robin, would I ever let you down, I'm the very face of honesty."

"Okay, ignoring those pranks you've pulled on me sure, let's just get moving."

With our conversation done, Robin led me to where the others were, apparently pushing the last of the invaders out of the castle. I told her I had to handle some business before I would catch up with her. So moving on to the side where I saw a familiar figure prepared to depart again, I stopped them. Placing my hands in front of her eyes, I said in a tone as close to Lissa's as I could.

"Guess who!"

"Let me think, it's Arthur isn't it."

"Ohh, how did you guess, it wasn't my voice was it?"

"No, it was rather close to Lissa's if that's a compliment. It came down to the fact that there's only one person I know that turns any situation into a joke even if it's serious."

"Well you caught me, but Mar Mar you couldn't possibly think of leaving without saying good bye to little ol me could you?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world Arthur."

"Well good, before you go off and be mysterious again, take this its dangerous to go alone." I said with mock warning. Since, the item in my hand wasn't actually anything that could possibly help anyone in a dangerous situation unless you were attacked by wild dogs.

"Oh it's a cake, thanks Arthur."

"Don't let the frosting melt, and you look nice without the mask Mar Mar."

"Eh hmm, alright then I'll be off then, maybe well see each other again." I saw Marth off as she hastily made her way out of the castle. Then realization struck me, I was supposed to be doing something. Must not have been that important if I forgot about it. So I decided to head back to Panne and see if I could get her to transform so I could ride her. Moving through the courtyard, I was greeted to the sight of Robin and man did she look tired.

"Hey Robin, you're not looking so great, what happened?"

"I was waiting for you Arthur." Now I remember, I was supposed to go back to the others with Robin and explain the bunny.

"Oh, yeah my bad, I forgot about what I was doing before, sorry."

"It's fine, let's just get a move on." So we headed off back to the others. Passing by hallways, and courtyards, I could see the extent of damage the battle had caused. There were smashed windows and arrows in many places. Pieces of burnt rubble, and possibly human remains that were cooked to a cinder. The sights of corpses scattered about where the most grueling, they ranged from badly maimed one's with broken heads, missing arms to subtle ones like pierced chests and slashed necks. It was going to take a while to clean this mess up that's for sure. By the time we got to Chrom and the others, I noticed the sun was beginning to rise. I haven't even had any sleep yet, hopefully I would get to actually sleep in a real bed for once.

"Welcome back Robin, I see you went to fetch Arthur."

"I did, and he has an interesting story to tell."

"Way to make it sound like it's all my fault."

"Well it was your job."

"Alright, now don't freak out, but I left guarding Emmeryn to a giant bunny."

"I hope I heard you wrong Arthur, it sounded like you said something crazy."

"Okay, in my defense she did save my life, so I assume she was on our side."

"So you're telling me, you let some strange giant bunny who you don't know guard my sister?"

"Well if you put it that way, it sounds bad, but yeah."

So Chrom dashed off to where we left his sister, with me trailing behind, trying to calm him down and reassure him it was fine. He would have none of it, since he kept running. Please be right Panne, don't be doing anything bad now, you're half bunny, there's no way you could be evil. When we crashed open the door leading to Emmeryn's chambers I was in shock before me was the most evil sight I had ever witnessed. There on the floor was Panne in bunny form, but that's not what shocked me, it was the fact that Emmeryn was on top of her. Regaining my senses, I rushed over to them and complained.

"What Panne, I thought you didn't want anyone to ride you, how come you let Emmeryn do it?"

"Because Arthur, you're going to do more than just sit on top of me aren't you."

"Uhh, well I was just thinking of it," she started giving me a glare that broached no lies, "alright I admit it I was going for much more."

"That's why I wouldn't let you ride me." As our conversation ended, I watched as Chrom was set laughing, probably from the fact that instead of being in danger, Emmeryn was sitting on top of a large bunny that Arthur was envious of.

"Good evening, Chrom I see you've been doing well."

"As to you sister, hopefully Arthur wasn't too rough in guarding you."

"Arthur is a very calming presence, and was glad to have him."

"Oh thanks, Emmy, you were the funniest person I had to guard."

"Hey, Arthur, that's the exalt your talking to, show some respect."

"It is fine Chrom, I wouldn't want to pull any teeth, besides, it's how Arthur shows friendship towards others."

"I'm glad you understand me so well." I said with a large grin on my face. With that business concluded we headed to the throne room where everyone was waiting. As we collected together I saw the weary faces over the room, and the gloom that was in the air was palpable. The effect of realizing we were at war, was dawning on everyone in the room I suspected. Robin was the one to announce our next step from here on in.

"Alright I know your all tired, but were going to first, march Emmeryn towards a new hideout safer than the capital, and second were going to leave this castle in the next couple moments." I knew sleeping in a real bed was a pipe dream, I could see my hopes crumbling as everyone began preparing for travel.

* * *

"Hey, cheer up Arthur, you'll get to sleep in a bed someday."

"You just don't get it do you Lissa, I spent years, traveling around sleeping on anything from rocks, to bug infested forest. But when you get to sleep in a bed, it is like bliss, after a long day of travel, getting the chance to properly sleep for once being whisked away hurts..." I guess at some point, the rest of the group decided to leave Arthur to Lissa, since she was the only one listening to me rant about how different bed sheets gave you different feelings.

"Hey Arthur, instead of talking about beds, why don't you just lay down in the trade caravan?"

"With Anna." I said with some fear, indicating what that entailed with some volume.

"Oh what's wrong are you scared she's going to make you pay for it?"

"Oh that's not what I'm afraid of Lissa, there's something much scarier than that."

"Hey, why don't you tell me about how you met Marth anyway."

"Oh, how do you know Mar Mar anyway Lissa?"

"Oh, well she did save me once, when I was about to be hit by some evil risen. She was so heroic, swooshing in at the last moment, and saving me from its blade. Anyway, how come you were fighting with Marth in the arena anyway?"

"Oh that's a long story, but to summarize, I owed someone Basilio a favor and he was calling it in, except I didn't know I was going to be fighting in the arena at the time."

"That must have been confusing, being asked to do something that you weren't expecting."

"It was not a big deal, I didn't mind besides I got to meet you guys right?"

"Hey you right, you've been pretty fun to have Arthur, even if Robin calls you annoying I'm sure deep down shes glad to have you."

"That's what I'm here for Lissa, anyway we should probably hurry up since we've started to lag behind them." I indicated towards the other shepherds who were way ahead of us. As we jogged to catch up to the rest of them, I heard a call come from behind us. It sounded like someone was trying to warn us of something. Running up to Robin and Chrom, I got their attention and directed it behind us were a single Pegasus knight could be seen flying towards us. She made a gallant figure, wearing a silver chest plate that seemed quite well made and ornate and her hair was a striking red color that was similar to Anna's. She rode on a majestic Pegasus, as clean and strong looking as Sumia's and her face seemed to be set in a stern frown as she flew towards us.

* * *

Alright so now were getting ready for another fight, apparently the other knights were ambushed and most of them were killed off, but they allowed Cordelia enough time to escape and warn us. The worst part of that was, they captured Emmeryn somehow and now they're coming for us. So, while Robin and Chrom went off to make their plans as the enemy approached. I went to find Anna, to see if I could manage to get a new bow and sword since mine were nearly broken with cracks running through them. Looking for her trademark red hair, I found her near the trade caravan that she happens to own.

"Hey, Anna you mind selling me a new sword and bow?"

"Sure Arthur, I've got a fine selection of bows ranging from bronze to steel, and the swords are in the bins over there take your pick." She gestured to the large array of weapons all over the bin. I made my way towards the bow rack first. Hovering over the assortment of bows and the price tags on each of them, I picked out a sturdy looking steel bow and paid her the required bits. She smiled at the coins being dropped into her pouch. I laughed for a bit at that, in which she responded with a cleared throat. Getting to the sword filled bin, I noticed something strange, there was a cloth covering an ornate looking blade that seemed to be made of a metal that I haven't ever seen before. Picking it up I heard a shout from Anna before everything went black.

* * *

As the darkness receded from my vision, I noticed that I wasn't in Anna's tent anymore. I was staring up at the rafters of the medical tent. As I pushed myself up from the cot, I was greeted to the sight of a bunch of worried faces. Lissa gave me a warm hug and a great big sigh as I untangled myself from her and asked,

"What happened?" I asked directing my attention to Robin.

"Anna says that sword was cursed and should not have been in that barrel."

"What," I responded in disbelief. I was unsure of what to make of these events. I was filled with questions that needed answers to if I was going to be okay mentally. "What happened to the sword?"

"It's beside your bed," Robin indicated towards the sheathed blade leaning on the side of the bed. As I moved to pick it up, I felt a strange pressure coming from my head, as if I was underwater. It was suffocating, but at the same time felt comforting. Unsheathing the blade, I noted that it didn't look any different than it did when I picked it up in the barrel. "I need to find Anna, thanks for taking care of me guys."

"Oh don't thank us, it was mostly Lissa that took care of you after Anna told us what happened." Hearing that I turned to Lissa, and gave her a pat on the head.

"Hey, I hope you're not treating me like a kid Arthur." She said in a manner more fitting of a small child, though it did make me want to give her a hug.

"Wouldn't dream of it Lissa, but I do mean to thank you and if there's anything I can do to make it up to you just name it." With a final nod and an okay from Lissa, I ran through the camp looking for Anna. I found her making some sales to the other shepherds, but when she saw me she shooed them away.

"Hey Anna, so mind explaining to me the story behind this sword?"

"Yep about that I'm not sure how that got there, I was pretty sure I put it in storage, I'm really sorry about what happened."

"Ah, don't worry about it Anna, I'm not angry, I'm much more curious than angry at this point. So back to what I asked, could you tell me about the sword?"

"Oh, well sure, I don't mind, but it does get rather dark, are you sure you want to hear about it?"

"Well of course I do, all this is making me even more curious so just tell me already."

"Well alright, as long as you're sure." She cleared her throat as she prepared to describe to me its story. I sat myself down on one of the nearby stools and placed the sword beside me. As I waited with baited breath for her to begin, I anticipated a rather grim tale. Why else would the sword be rumored to be cursed?

"The blade's name is Essence Drinker, Its name originated from the way it gains power from the blood of the one's its slain, It is said to gain power from battle and bloodlust, whether it be from righteous fury or dark intent. The sword finds its new owner by touch and binds itself to their soul until death. The last wielder of the blade was said to be a insane individual that screamed for war and battle wherever he could find it even the blood of innocents were spilled."

"Wait does that mean I'm going to go insane?"

"Hmm, you've got to let me finish first then you'll be able to decide."

"Alright alright, I'll let you continue."

"Thanks, anyway, not all wielders have been driven to madness of course, there have been some that have been able to maintain their sanity and even purge the corrupt. I've never wielded it myself of course, but I have heard stories about the sword speaking to its owner."

I was stuck in thought about what to do with this situation, what do I do in this situation. In truth, I don't really feel like this is that bad of a situation. I mean not only did I just acquire an unbreakable blade, but it's got a really cool story to come with it. I felt sort of strange as if something interesting had just happened. I said my thanks to Anna and moved through the camp with the blade in its sheath at my side. I slung my bow and quiver around my back and set off for a walk. I needed to clear my mind of such thoughts. Walking through the forest, I was interrupted by Gaius.

"Need some company there Peppy?"

"Oh hey Gaius, I could use a good friend."

"Hey don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll be fine, you're not going to go crazy and starts massacring us all, besides I'm sure were more than capable of stopping you."

"Oh that's not what I'm worried about, it's just Anna told me the sword talks to its wielders, so I was sort of concerned about what that would be like, but I get what you're saying Gaius, thanks."

"Ah what are buddies for, anyway to celebrate your return to the world of the living, here's one a cake from my secret stash."

"Thanks Gaius, by the way they never told me, but how long have I been out for?"

"Oh, you were knocked out for about two days; we put you on the trade wagon with Anna, and were going to head into the desert next."

"Two days huh, well at least it wasn't any longer."

We spent the rest of the time strolling through the forest, as my mood slowly improved. I saw Gaius off to bed, and decided what to do next. I wasn't tired yet because I was sleeping for the past two days anyway. Moving to a remote area, I unsheathed Essence Drinker and took a scrutinizing look at it. It was a finely crafted looking blade, with an ornate handle covered in strange red cloth over the grip, and a purple blade that seemed almost black, as the sinister wave pattern on the blade gave it an evil appearance. The cross guard was a deep black, that seemed to devour light. I took a few practice swings and spent the rest of the night waving it around. I vowed that no matter what happened, I'd die before hurting my friends.

* * *

"Oh gods, it's so hot, how long is it Robin please, I'm dying I can't walk any further."

"Quiet Arthur, there are a few villages we can make a stop at soon, so just be quiet before I sick Fredrick on you." I remained quiet at that, the thought of imposing Fredrick hanging by my side, sent chills down my spine. I'd seen him in battle, no matter who he was against regardless of weapon; he would demolish them like an ocean tide, unstoppable and relentless. So I continued to trudge through the desert sand and hot sun, the fatigue and heat was getting to me. My legs felt like giving out with each step and it only got worse as my parched throat begged for water.

Scanning the desert, I noticed a pool of water just off in the distance, in retrospect it may not have been the smartest move at the time being in a desert and all, but I ran towards it. Diving for the water, hoping to finally quench my thirst, I heard yelling from Robin and the others as I made my way over to the pool. When I put my hands into the water, it slowly disappeared, and revealed itself to be simply more desert sand.

"Noooooo," I shouted into the sky, as I agonized over my predicament, I was handed a water skin cask. Overjoyed at the realization that I was able to satisfy my thirst, I drank the whole thing down in one go.

"Eh, you must be quite thirsty to drink so quickly."

"Oh you wouldn't believe it, I've been spending most of today marching through the desert."

"Oh good, well since I've helped you, would you like to help me?"

"Well sure, what do you need me to do?" As I asked that question, my gruff looking savior pointed towards the girl behind him. I think I got it, he wants me to take care of her doesn't he, well I guess I do have a way with kids. Moving towards her, I noted her rather strange appearance, and the ears that seemed to be protrude out from her head.

"Well hey there little girl, do you need help, are you lost in the desert or something?"

"Mmm, I'm not a kid, I'm a full grown adult and older than you."

"Ah I see the desert sun must have gotten to you, here why don't I walk you over to the nearest village and we can find your mommy and daddy." As I moved to take her hand, I was blown off my feet by the arrival of a large dragon. Out of concern I looked around for the little girl that was here earlier, but couldn't seem to find her. Don't tell me she was flattened by the dragon. While I was in the middle of my own thoughts, it was interrupted by the dragon knocking me on my but. With a large explosion, the dragon seemed to morph and change shape back into the form of the recognizable little girl I was looking at earlier.

"Wait, did I just see that happen?" I turned to the gruff man, hoping for an answer to my question, but all I got in response was a nod.

"I'm a Manakete, so I might look like this, but I'm actually over a hundred years old."

"Well then, if that's not why you wanted my help then why point to her."

"I was trying to point behind her." Taking my gaze and directing it to the position he indicated, I noticed a group of black robed individuals making their way towards us. They looked like religious priests who were part of a cult. They carried various tomes and staves and each robe had a strange marking on them that were similar to what Robin seemed to wear.

"Well that makes a lot more sense; I've got a better plan though. We run towards the rocks over there."

* * *

"Lissa would you mind getting Arthur to come back, he's probably slouching around in the hot desert sun somewhere after realizing the pool of water was a mirage."

"Sure thing Robin. Hey, I found him he's coming towards us, and he brought people with him."

"What do they look like."

"Well one of them looks like a mercenary and the other is a little girl."

"Why are they running towards us?"

"I'm not sure; it looks like they're running from something, like they're being chased."

"Looks like trouble, alright everyone to arms. We don't know what we're dealing with, but it's enough to make Arthur want to run."

* * *

"Why do we run towards rock Arthur?"

"That's why Gregor," as I pointed towards the Shepherds who were now mobilizing for battle. Good to know Robin has enough sense to realize that trouble was approaching. When we finally got close to the others, I quickly introduced Gregor and Nowi to the rest of them and the strange robed individuals I saw whilst running for my life. As we waited behind the rocks to ambush them, I belted Essence drinker to my side. We could feel their footsteps approaching and the tension began to rise as we waited for them to cross our path. Once they came into vision, we struck.

"Attack!"

The shout began the attack, as I moved to struck down the first person I saw with my blade. As we crossed blades, I felt an exhilarating feeling rising from within, as if I had boundless energy to be released and my muscles screamed for action. Slicing through my first victim cleanly, I noticed some of their blood flowed into my sword, but there was no time to think about it now. Cutting down enemy by enemy, I felt more and more powerful with each fallen foe and they in turn rejuvenated my fighting spirit. As the last enemy fell, Robin wanted to discuss what just happened with Chrom and the others, so I made my way over to the campsite that was set up to take a nap before we would have to set off again. My aching body could do with some rest after everything that has happened today.

While lying down in the cot trying to sleep, the feeling from the battle was still within me. It was a feeling of violent carnage, of need for more bloodshed. Now I see how the sword could have driven people to the brink of madness, I need to calm myself down. The only way I could think of to calm down was to eat sweets except I didn't have any on me at the moment so I headed off to beg Gaius for some. On the way there I was interrupted by something hitting me in the head. As I rubbed my forehead of the growing bruise, Nowi came running up to me.

"Sorry Arthur, didn't mean to hit you, I meant to hit that snake over there."

"Ah now worries Nowi, I sort of needed that wakeup call anyway." While talking to Nowi, I had a sudden urge to grasp her in my arms, was this normal? I just felt the need to hold her tight and pretend she was mine for a moment.

"Hey Nowi, you mind if I give you a hug?"

"Umm sure Arthur, I'm always up for hugs."

And so, I hugged Nowi. Man was she small, couldn't really tell before, but she really is small. I could feel the bloodlust recede as I held her in my arms. This is really relaxing. For the moment I Nowi was in my arms, Lissa came walking by and saw us together.

"Hey, I want a hug too."

I don't know what happened, but after some time had passed we ended up with a group hug consisting of a grumpy Panne, disgruntled Gaius, cheery Lissa, springy Nowi, and myself.

"Okay, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop now."

"Oh, someone sounds like they need a hug."

So that continued on for a while longer, on the bright side I got rid of my earlier problem and only at the cost of Gaius not giving me sweets for a week.

* * *

So were back to traveling again, apparently Emmeryn is holed up somewhere near an execution ground. Gangrel's a pretty sadistic guy, trying to give her a public execution. I saw Chrom earlier to, he looked pretty shaken up by everything that is going on. We could see a large fortress looking structure built into the sand a few miles away. Robin planned a rather elaborate course of action that we were supposed to take as we neared the structure. Course thats when we noticed the huge mass of enemy troops. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Enemy forces are coming in from behind Robin, and there seems to be a woman fighting some of the enemy soldiers near the ruins."

"Thanks for scouting Arthur"

"Ah no problem I hope you got a plan for this though."

"We'll take them out from the front, full on charge."

"Umm okay well you're our tactician so alright."

"Arthur, I need you to sneak past the other soldiers and see what we're up against using those ruins can you do it?"

"Sure thing boss, I live to serve." I began my trek to the nearby ruins that seemed to surround the entire outside of the mountain wall. Making my way through there I noticed a few enemy archers set off to pick off any oncoming attackers. Taking out my daggers, I surveyed the area and determined they were spaced out far enough that I could take each of them out without them noticing my presence. Creeping through the ruins as quietly as I could, I dispatched each and every one of them in a routine. Sneak up, knife through the ribs, and set down body slowly. As I got to the last archer, I looted his corpse and found a few items of interest. One of them happened to be a battle plan and the various locations of the troops that were placed in defense of the execution grounds. Robin would likely want to have a look at this. Glancing at the numerous names of the different troops in the vicinity. I came upon one that gave me chills, it was her again, I did not have fond memories with a certain individual, hopefully she won't find out I was here. Finishing off with the rest of the ruins, I began to retrace my steps back to the entrance again and back to the Shepherds. Closing in on the exit, I heard the sounds of frantic running and turned my attention to the noise.

In the distance, a blonde haired woman dressed in priest like clothing, was making her way to the ruins I was currently located in. She was being pursued by the Plegian soldiers. Not sure what to do, I went with the fact that since she's being chased by our enemy, she could be considered a friend for now. Notching arrows into my bow, I let loose a shower of arrows aimed at the Plegians chasing her, as they fell to the onslaught of wooden projectiles. I stepped out of the ruins to greet her.

"Good thing I was nearby with a bow in hand."

"Thank you kind stranger, I was hoping to skip effort of having to resort to violence."

"Trying to lose them in the ruins I'm guessing."

"Those were my thoughts yes."

"Well, now that's taken care of, I got to find the rest of my party, found something they might need."

"Would it trouble you if I joined you?"

"Well, we could use all the help we'll need so I'm sure they won't mind, name's Arthur."

"I am called Libra."

"Nice name, sounds really beautiful."

"Sadly I was not born a girl."

"Oh, sorry, I just, it's…"

"No it is alright, I understand that my appearance is more feminine, than most men."

"Right anyway, let's get going before I make a fool of myself."

Heading back to the others, I could notice the amount of carnage and devastation that was caused by the battles being fought. There were scattered bodies of fallen soldiers all over the desert sands, strewn about as if by some mad painter. The locations of small skirmishes could be seen by the roughed up sand and the splashes of red being embedded into the picture. Moving on from that, I followed the signs of carnage to see the others slowly pushing forward through the numerous number of enemy troops.

"Hey Robin, I found something you might be interested in seeing, it's the enemy's battle plan which I happened to have confiscated from one of the soldiers." What followed was Robin scanning over the paper, and making a few affirmative sounds here and there. Unsure of what to do next, Robin fixed that predicament by giving off a few order.

"I want anyone able to use a bow to defend our rear against the enemy reinforcements, and Lissa I want you to support them if they're injured."

* * *

So that's how I ended up with Virion of all people, I never really got to know him though, so I guess this was my chance to find out what he's really like. I always found him to be rather pompous, but on the bright side at least Lissa's here too. As I watched the horizon for any sight of a threat. I pondered why Robin only wanted people who could use a bow to defend our rear, wouldn't it be more prudent to have the sturdier fighters in the back I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of thundering wings flapping in unison. As I directed my attention towards the sound, I was met with the sight of a squadron flying beasts. There was about a dozen winged creatures headed towards us. They were of different species; I could see Gyphons, Wyverns, and Pegasi coming towards us. Their arrival explained why Robin positioned us here.

"Hey Virion I challenge you, whoever shoots down more gets to make the loser follow a single order, you in?"

"Ha, your common archery will be no match for the likes of me, bring it Arthur."

"Hey shouldn't you guys take this a little more seriously?"

"Come on Lissa, a little fun in the midst of combat never hurt anyone."

"Whatever you say Arthur, but Robin expects you to shoot them all."

"No worries Lissa, as long as we're here none shall pass."

Notching an arrow into my steel bow, I fired at the nearest Pegasus. I watched as she attempted to dodge to the right, allowing me to fire another one into the rider on top of the beast. Now rider less the Pegasus landed, unsure of what to do as the body of the soldier tumbled into the sands below. Glancing at the other enemies, I notched a few more arrows and noted that the Wyverns seemed to fly slower than the Pegasus, although they were much more menacing in size. Taking careful aim and steadying my heartbeat as to focus. I fired a few more arrows at the oncoming horde. Luckily, one of the shots managed to hit its intended mark, puncturing the wing of the dragon and causing it to careen towards the ruins with a satisfying crash.

With my first two targets down, I glanced over at Virion for a moment and was amazed at the speed of which he could fire those arrows. Not wanting to lose, I reaffirmed my goal and strove for it. With the horde of enemy flyers nearing we each shot arrow after arrow of our boy, by the time there were only two flyers left in the air, my bow couldn't handle the strain of the continuous fire and the string snapped with a resounding snap. With the original dozen flyers almost gone, I noted that I had only shot down five of them, but being unable to fire another arrow to take out another to tie it up. Virion gave me a rather comical smirk as if to say 'too bad your bow broke, this victory is mine' as he let loose another casual shot to take at another one of the remaining two.

I watched as the final flyer was shot down, and Virion turned to me as if to gloat. What came instead was a simple declaration of victory. I guess he was going to discuss the spoils of victory after this was all over. I could feel a chill creep up my spine from the way he smiled as we walked away from the carnage that was wrought.

"Hey, wait for me," Lissa cried out. I almost forgot about her, since I was concentrating quite hard and couldn't focus on anything else at the time. Waving Virion to go on ahead, I slowed my pace to match Lissa's.

"Oh sorry Lissa, forget about you." Sighing, I responded to Lissa's earlier question with some whining. Telling her, "unfortunately, Virion won, but that's just because my bow couldn't withstand my awesome shooting abilities. I really need to get better at taking care of my equipment, I heard that some of the Shepherds could use the same sword forever because they knew how not to break it.

"Oh sorry to hear that Arthur, did he say what he wanted you to do?"

"Not yet, but that smile he gave me sent chills down my spine. I have the feeling he's going to wait for a good opportunity to embarrass me or something."

"Hey, don't let it get you down. I know how about a race, if you beat me to Chrom and the others, I'll give you some candy from my special pouch."

"You're on Lissa." As we prepared to run, I thought it would be kind of unfair having her run around in a dress, except when we started running I remembered back to what Chrom was telling me when I mentioned Lissa and I's pranking activities.

"Yep, I'm glad Lissa found someone who can keep up with her, especially with all that energy she keeps holed up inside her just waiting to explode out. You should see her run sometime Arthur, when she was younger she would race across the palace in a second, and be at the end of town the next."

This memory surfaced because, of the fact that as I was running, Lissa would outpace me no matter how hard I tried. If I slowed down she would too, as if to mock me. When we got in sight of the others, I pushed myself as hard as I could focusing on pumping my legs left foot, right foot. Running so fast, I couldn't stop myself in time and ended up crashing into Robin. Brushing me off and offering her a hand accompanied with an apology. I had to ask.

"Did I win?"

"Unfortunately no, Lissa beat you by about three point four seconds."

"Well that was fun, what happens when I lose Lissa you never told me." Although I was sort of disappointed at losing another challenge, it did get my mind off of what Virion might have had planned for me. I mean I'm sure Lissa couldn't have anything planned that would be nearly as ominous as Virion's surely.

"Since I won Arthur, I demand you sing a song for me."

"Can this wait till after the battle Lissa?" I asked, hoping to postpone my impending doom, as sweat began to form on my brow at the fear of having to sing in front of others. I never liked thought of myself as a good singer, so I sincerely hoped Lissa would allow me to weasel out of this for now. Luckily, Lissa let me leave my doom for later in the future. That was something to look forward too.

We began to move forward again, nearing the entrance to the execution grounds I saw earlier. The entrance was guarded by two towers with numerous troops sitting inside them. Robin decided to split us into two, one force to take out the troops in the tower and the other to move through the front and take on their leader in the hopes of reaching Emmeryn in time. Remembering back to the troop list and the name I saw I hoped that, with fingers crossed, Robin would put me into the group that was to invade the twin towers.

"Arthur, I want you to join Chrom and the other's in rescuing Emmeryn."

"Uh, could I take on the towers instead?"

"What are you talking about, your skills are needed with Chrom's group, I can't change the strategy just because you demand it." I shrunk back from her stern voice and icy stare, realizing that objecting against Robin's orders would be pointless. My only hope was that she wouldn't notice me.

"Alright you're with me Arthur, don't be afraid, we've taken on soldiers much tougher than this, if you're in trouble just run to my side and we'll take them on together."

"Oh it's not the soldiers I'm afraid of, let's just say there is someone I know on their side, and for better or worse, I'm afraid of what she'll do if she sees me."

"Wow, I've never seen you so afraid Arthur, it can't be that bad surely."

"That's because you've never experienced true terror before Chrom, the likes of which that tears at the soul." I declared as shivers traveled down my spine. I told Chrom one last thing before we got going, "If I disappear, then it's not because I ran away, but I found a place to hide."

"Well see what happens, anyway, let's go Shepherds."

Moving throughout the desert sands we neared the entrance way to Emmeryn. There was about a dozen Plegians standing in our way, even a few Grimleal were part of their ranks, well at least they looked like Grimleal. One of the mages was wearing a cloak quite similar to theirs. As the first few battles began to start out, I moved to the back to support Chrom with my bow. He was quite a marvel to watch on the battlefield, each movement was done with skill and finesse. It was as if he took swordsmanship to a new level, the strange thing was, as I watched him fight, I had the feeling I'd seen this sort of fighting style somewhere before. There was no time to think on it though as a fireball flew my way. I ducked out of the way, and looked for the caster. Seeing him in the distance, I took careful aim and fire as he was casting another spell, too focused on finishing the spell, I easily took him down as he couldn't dodge the arrow.

Taking a look back at Chrom, to my alarm he was encircled by several soldiers. Unsheathing my blade, I moved to lend my assistance. Yelling out my war cry, I charged aiming at the nearest one. He was unable to react in time to the blade swinging down at him, and I was able to finish him off before he could counter. Turning to Chrom, I made one last remark.

"Looks like someone forgot to invite me to the party."

"Glad you could make it."

"Let's take these guys down, we got a damsel to save."

"On it."

Moving in unison, we attacked the soldiers with fervor never relenting our assault. We moved through each enemy in a fluid motion, with a parry here and there returned with a strike. With each enemy I struck down, I could feel myself growing faster and stronger with the blood that is being shed. It felt exhilarating, each swing became more fluid and powerful with kill. It was as if each fallen foe gave me a sugar rush of a new level. As the last body fell, I held a rather bloody blade in my hand, but the blood did not cake rather absorb itself into the sword itself. It was as if the blade was a living thing, taking in the red liquid like fine wine. As I cleaned myself off, standing before me was someone who has been haunting my dreams for many nights.

"Mhmm, found you." Those two words sent chills down my spine, and froze my blood. I could feel my sense of panic rising; thankfully Chrom noticed my predicament and got in between us.

"Halt, if you wish to harm Arthur, you'll have to get past me first."

"Fool, you can't stop fate." Finishing her rant about destiny and what not and how our souls were bound together, Chrom gave me a questioning look. It seemed to ask me what was going on.

"Okay, so on my travels, I happened to help her out on a certain occasion, and we traveled together for a while, but got separated one day due to certain circumstances." I tried my best to reveal to Chrom that I was uncomfortable around her without actually telling him directly in the hopes that Tharja would not hear something negative.

While I was explaining to Chrom, Tharja had snuck up behind me. She ran her fingers down my spine which inadvertently sent me cowering behind Chrom's back. I whimpered in his ear like a scared little puppy hiding behind its master. With some irritation, Chrom stepped aside and started reprimanding me about my actions.

"Alright Arthur, enough of your games, we still have a battle to win." Finishing his rant off with that, I was left alone with Tharja.

"Hey, long time no see huh." She didn't respond with that, she simply continued staring at me as if I was a morsel about to be eaten. With a final nod in my direction as if concluding a decision on something, she told me in a clear voice,

"Well we should get on with the battle Arthur, wouldn't want to anyone dying would we."

"Uhh, sure." As we continued back towards the rest of the troops, I couldn't shake the feeling of dread building up within me. It was a sense of danger that told me win or lose something was waiting for me at the end of this battle that I would have to deal with eventually.

* * *

"Alright Shepherds, these are the final troops blocking our way to Emmeryn, fight proud and strong." With that final message in our minds, we charged forward clashing against the enemy force. I used my sword to slice through enemy by enemy, parrying every attack that came towards me. That familiar feeling of empowerment coursed through my veins edging me on. I moved quicker, struck harder, and killed faster with each drop of blood spilt. In my daze, I had not noticed that I had charged into the middle of their forces, surrounded on all sides by the enemies. I could not feel fear, because the blade's thirst for blood was echoing into my mind clouding any thoughts of retreat. I fought like a beast, without thought only action, slicing through arms, maiming bodies, and feasting on their blood. As the numbers of enemies thinned, and my mind began to recollect itself, I was wracked with pain. The rage of battle had blocked my senses, so blows that were dealt on to me, were only felt now.

I groaned in pain and gasped as I pulled an arrow out of my leg. Surveying the rest of the Shepherds, I noticed they did not come out of this unscathed either. There were cuts and bruises on everyone, some were better off than the others, but we could all use a good night's sleep after this business was over. Taking a short breather, I was shocked to discover the sight that greeted me when I caught up to Robin. Before I could even scream, Emmeryn had martyred herself, falling from the height that she just did. I felt my heart reach out for Chrom and the pain that he would no doubt have been dealt by this turn of events.

"What happens now?" I asked Robin, hoping for a tactful response to the recent events.

"Simple Arthur, we retreat, regroup, and retaliate."

"Sounds like a plan." I told her, understanding that this battle was lost. As the rest of the Shepherds formed up, we made tracks for our base camp. The mood was rather morbid; you could feel it in the air, a stench of sadness and regret. Hopefully, Chrom wouldn't put all the blame on himself and know that all his friends were here for him.

* * *

Setting up the camp didn't take too long, but it felt stiff and awkward, probably from the fact that no one knew how to cheer up Chrom about what just happened. I talked to Robin about it and apparently were going to be moving against Gangrel now. Tharja went off with Robin afterwards to get settled into the army and be introduced to how the Shepherds worked. Seeing my silent protests as Robin was interviewing Tharja for information to write down in that book of hers. I had the feeling they only spurred her on to make sure she was placed near me as if indulging in some cruel torment. If this was her way of tormenting me for the pranks, then the prank I have planned for her will be all the more sweeter.

With my face all mucked up from the constant battles and running, I left Tharja to Robin to find a place to wash my face. Calmly, I walked towards the stream that was by our camp and kneeled down to use the water. Sighing, I washed my face with a few splashes of the icy cold water, thinking this day couldn't get any worse. Course that was when Lissa showed up, reminding me of the torment that awaited me.

"Hey Arthur, remember that bet we made, well seeing as how everyone's sad over what just happened, it made me think, 'how can I cheer everyone's mood up?' That's when I remembered, that I could still get Arthur to sing, so come on Arthur let's hear that song of yours."

"Uh, Lissa wouldn't everyone get more depressed hearing my terrible singing?"

"Hey, don't think like that, it'll lift everyone's spirits, just trust me." As I mumbled my protests, Lissa had grabbed my arm and was pulling me up and walking me over to the center of camp.

Getting closer to the center of camp, I could see the faces of all the Shepherds all sitting in various places looking either glum about the recent events or unhappy about not being able to lift the mood.

I turned to Lissa, asking her, "What did you do Lissa, did you tell the whole camp to come because I'm sure there are much better things to do than hear me sing."

"I just told them that they had to come see something Arthur was planning to cheer everyone up." Well this was going to make things harder, I wasn't sure what they were expecting, but hopefully my singing wouldn't make them lose all hope. May as well get this over with, who knows on the off chance that this does lift everyone's spirits it'll be worth a little lost pride. Clearing my throat and warming it up for my impending doom, I turned to the crowd in front of me.

"Alright, I'm not sure exactly what Lissa told you guys, but for the most part this will probably give you a good laugh then anything." If it wasn't obvious before it was when Gaius yelled out a comment.

"Get on with it Peppy!" I was simply trying to hold off the inevitable, after all no person wants to be publicly shamed. The worst thing about this was Lissa was all smiles the entire time as she watched me squirm. I could feel the many eyes on me and that set my heart beating. My hands paled and began to sweat as the nerves got to me. Shaking, I calmed myself down with a few breathing exercises and prepared myself for the worst. I decided to sing to them a old folk song I remember hearing at an inn one day, it was some strange ballad about a lost hero and such.

I wasn't sure how I was doing because; for the most part everyone was rather silent during the entire ordeal. Since this was something I had to do anyway, I steeled myself for the coming comments and finished the song. Those were the longest three minutes I had ever experienced, by the time I was finished singing the songs I swear my hands were cold enough to freeze water.

"So how'd I do?" As if that broke the tension in the air, they responded by laughing in my face. I could see all their faces light up in pleasure from my singing. I groaned here and there expecting this reaction; well at least it didn't really hurt my pride in any way. As the laughter died down, there were a few comments thrown my way, most notably was Gaius'

"Hey Peppy, I'm sure we can turn your voice into a weapon, when the enemies hear it they'll be too busy laughing to defend themselves."

"Ha-ha I know if you want to get a refund for the ear damage you've gotten from hearing my abysmal singing then you can talk to Lissa about it."

Taking a glance at the rest of the camp, I saw Chrom laughing with the rest of us, and the tense atmosphere that was flooding the camp after Emmeryn's death seemed to have lifted. I wouldn't have to worry about stepping on any toes now. My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a blonde haired trickster and her brother in tow.

"Hey Arthur, see told you it'd work, nothing cheers people up faster than a good laugh."

"Okay, just a question though, did you plan this all out from the beginning?"

"Nah I didn't think that far, I just wanted to hear something funny."

"Alright come here Lissa, I'm gonna need to pay you back for that embarrassment."

"You'll have to catch me first!" I started chasing after her as she said that, if I didn't realize Lissa was fast before it was pretty obvious now. Course that didn't stop me from chasing her down, I almost caught her a few times too. Each time we made a swift turn, I caught up a bit, I could see it my victory was at hand. She may beat me when we're running in a straight line, but that dress makes it harder for her to turn. When I got within a few feet of her, I leaped at her, managing to cause her to tumble. As she was climbing to her feet, I began to tickle her as hard as I could.

"Hahahahaha, stop, stop it Arthur, I can't breathe."

"Never Lissa, not till you say you're sorry for embarrassing me."

"Okay okay, I'm sorry I won't do it again."

"That's better." Getting off Lissa, I could see the stares I was getting from a few people from camp. Namely, there was Chrom giving me a knowing smile as if understanding what I was feeling, Gaius who couldn't hold back his laughter, and Robin who seemed happy about something. Suffice to say, I couldn't understand what they were thinking about so I disregarded that from my mind and instead offered Lissa a hand up. Taking it, I pulled her to her feet and helped steady herself before making sure she was okay.

"I'm fine Arthur, a little dirty, but a little dirt doesn't hurt anyone, except maybe Maribelle."

"Haha, shes probably allergic to it or something." Poking fun at her expense, course having a umbrella sent flying my way didn't help any. Rubbing my nose in pain, I waved to Maribelle before she walked away. Yawning, I told Lissa we should probably get to bed seeing as how the next morning we'd be marching for Gangrel. Saying goodnight to her, I made a move for my tent. Hopefully tomorrow won't be the last day I'd spend with the Shepherds.


End file.
